Bubbling Brook part 3
The best part--well, I should say ONE of the best parts, because the more God (love) reveals Himself to me, the more "best parts" I end up finding--about God is that He never requires ANYTHING unless He first provides it. This is seen pretty clearly in the story of Abraham and Isaac. Genesis 22:8 says, "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together." And I can see that Abraham meant God would provide an offering FOR Himself, but I can also see that God provided HIMSELF as the offering. We think God wants the thing we love most. But really He gave the thing (His only begotten Son) that HE loved most. We see this again in Genesis 35:19-21, "And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar." Rachel died. Jacob buried her. And then Israel journeyed. I remember hearing this passage preached as, "You have to give up the thing you love most in order to access your destiny." But guys... what father could possibly want that for his son? The name, "Rachel" means, "an ewe." Which is a female lamb. It wasn't Jacob giving up something that lead to his transformation. It was the death to the lamb! God doesn't want what we can produce. Remember Cain and Able? He ONLY wants the Lamb! Which is why the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. The work was finished before we ever tried to earn our bread by the sweat of our brow. God never wanted slaves. Jesus didn't come to be served. He came to serve. He came to give His life for us, and give His life to us. So that we could have it. So that we could experience it as HE lives it in us, and through us, and as us. Even the New Commandment bears this truth out; we are commanded to love AS WE ARE LOVED. All of the emphasis is on God's love for us. Because that's all that's expected of us. If God wants us to love a lot, He has to first love us a lot. If He wants a river of living water to flow out of our innermost being... HE has to first put it there. And that's what the Holy Spirit is all about--revealing to us who we are, by revealing to us who God is. Who we are in Christ is who Christ is in us. The living water bubbles up out of us WHEN WE BELIEVE. When we know and believe that we are loved, that's when we can love. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. And you have what you have by the grace of God. You have it because He gave it to you. He provided it before He required it. And the (next) best part is that you experience the gift you've been given by giving it away! You are blessed... to be a blessing. You fill yourself with what you've been filled with by sharing it. By seeing a need... and meeting it. Not by condemning people, but by loving the hell out of them! Not by kicking people when they're down, but by helping them up. The wind of the Holy Spirit blows, and it stirs up what's already inside. And then the gardener can enjoy the fruit of His labor even as YOU enjoy it. By helping OTHERS enjoy it. You don't have to force it. You don't have to fake it 'til you make it. All you have to do is be open to love. Accept (know and believe, receive and release) God's love for you. Let what you've been filled with fill you to overflowing. And then it (HE) will come out. Naturally!