Co-Dependent part 4
God works in mysterious ways. Because He works through people. So the "co" part of this co-laboring, co-dependent relationship with God really does work both ways. Not that He depends on us because He HAS to, but because He CHOOSES to. If anybody has to depend on anybody, it is us depending on Him. Like our life depends on it. Because it does. Not because He'll kill us, or punish us, or any of that nonsense if we don't depend on Him... but because He IS life. Without God--without LOVE--there IS no life. You can't have life without love because they are not just connected, they are the same thing. To live is to love and to love is to live. Now look at this: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Romans 8:29-30). Basically, if God wants you to do something... He first qualifies you to do it. And then He does it with you. In you. Through you. As you. We don't do it FOR God as much as we do it WITH God. Look, if it's God who wants it to happen, it is God who will MAKE it happen. He simply chooses to do things through His people--through us--so that we can enjoy His plan. So that we can learn and grow, so that we can understand what we have (and who we are), and share what we have (who we are). God doesn't set His children up for failure. Why would He? If He puts a desire in your heart, He will also put the ability to accomplish that desire. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). It is both the desire and the ability. Coming from God working in us. Coming from us... working with Him. LETTING Him do His good pleasure by "using" us to do it. By including us in it. I believe we are blessed to be a blessing. I believe that God gives us good and perfect gifts so that we can, in a sense, pay it forward. He gave us abundant life so that we can live out of our abundance. So that we can receive and release the gift of God--which is eternal life. So that we can experience and enjoy the gift we've been given... by giving it away. By sharing it. Sometimes when God gives you what you need to do what He wants you to do, that takes the form of other people. People working together. Things work out better when we work together. I can't do it all on my own. But maybe you can do what I can't. And maybe I can do what you can't. So that together we can make it happen. Together we can get it done. But it all comes from God. The ability to connect with each comes from love. And God is love. With man it is impossible. But with God all things are possible. WITH God. Not "for" God. And, listen, I'm not saying you shouldn't do things for God. Or for people. I'm saying the way in which we truly do that is by doing those things WITH God. WITH people. Building those relationships. Not depending soley on ourselves, but depending on God even as He chooses to depend on us!