Extravagance part 3
The idea that we have a stingy heavenly Father is really a pretty poor, pretty sad one. Because it is the exact opposite of the truth. Look at Ephesians 1:6-7 in the Message Bible, "Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son." Which, to me, is simply another way of expressing the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you. The ultimate truth of the universe that, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand" (John 3:35). But what I want to key in on today is that word "lavish." And according to dictionary.com it means, "using or giving in great amounts." Which, again, is the opposite of being stingy. It is extravagant. Unnecessarily large. More than anything we could ask or even think. Exceeding abundantly above. Whatever you think the biggest thing God could do for you is... that's not the biggest. He can go bigger. HAS gone bigger. Wants to go bigger. And here's the best part--it's not about God spoiling us, in the sense of us being brats. It's about God empowering us in the sense of us being good stewards of what we have. Receiving AND releasing what He has given to us. Using what we've got in order to love the people in our lives. Love is giving, right? And you can't give what you don't have. So God had to first give us what He wanted us to have. So that we could give it away. So that we could share it. So that we could experience it BY sharing it. Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. He came that we might experience His own abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love by living it in us, and through us, and as us. He gave us everything He has and everything He is so that we could BE everything He has and everything He is by US giving everything He has and everything He is back to Him by giving it to each other! Letting what's inside of us come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. The New Commandment says, "Love one another as Jesus has loved you." Simply receive and release the love of God. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Let it in and let it out. Fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. That's how we live. To live is to love and to love is to live. It's all about love. The love that God has lavished upon us. Look. We are only expected to love as big as He loves us. That's why He loves us so big. For God SO loved the world. We are what He loves most. Each and every one of us. I am God's favorite. And so are you. With that kind of extravagant love flowing through us, it's impossible not to get it all over everybody we come into contact with. Because it's too big to keep inside. Way too be. Extravagantly too big. God has lavished His love--Himself--on us. He's not stingy. On the cross He gave us everything He has and everything He is. That's not what we need. That's what we have. And that's not just what we have. That's who we are! We can be just as lavish with our love. We can be just as extravagant!