Fullness part 2
Do any of you all remember that old song, "Here's my cup, Lord. Fill it up, Lord"? Something like that. Anyway, that seems to be how most "religious folk" operate; walking around with their hand out, begging for something they haven't got. Or, if they're really feeling good about themselves, trying to earn something they think they haven't got. But the problem with that is, we think we have to be someone we're not in order to earn something we haven't got. We think we're not good enough as is. I've even heard it preached, "God loves you just the way you are... but He loves you too much to leave you that way." And, I gotta say, I wholly reject that. The first part is good. Solid. I completely believe that God loves you just the way you are. But the thing about love is that love doesn't demand its (HIS) own love. Love doesn't try to change people. I think a more accurate statement would be that God loves you just the way you are, and wants more than anything for you to know how you REALLY are. That's why Jesus wrapped Himself in sinful flesh and dwelt among us. Not to condemn us, or change us, or give us a religion. But so that we might have life and that more abundantly. So that we might know what life really is. Living is loving, I say it all the time. He came to show us who we are. By showing us who God is. God is love. Jesus is God in the flesh, love in a body. God in YOUR flesh, love in YOUR body. He is the fulness of the Godhead bodily. All of God in a body. All of LOVE in a body. So we don't need Him to "fill us up." And, listen, one of my favorite Bible verses is when David strengthened himself in the Lord. I'm not talking about Him being there for us when we need Him. Of course He is. He swore He would never leave us nor forsake us. I'm talking about getting rid of the mindset that says, "I'm lacking something." Because, as I stated yesterday, we have no lack because our God has no lack. And He has already filled us to overflowing with His love. With Himself. Jesus did it all (on the cross) so we could get it all. We have it all. We can--if we would just be still and know that HE is God--enjoy the fruits of HIS labor. The fruit of the Spirit. Which, spoiler alert, is love. That's what He gave us. That's what we have. Which means we don't need to go around begging for it. From God Himself OR from each other. I've often said, "If you have to beg for something, even if you get it... its not worth it." Some things are worth fighting for. The good fight of faith. But I don't think anything is worth begging for. Especially when the very thing we want the most--to be loved--is something that we have always had. We just didn't know it until the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth--equipped and empowered us to know and believe that our heavenly Father loves us. To receive and release His love. To receive it BY releasing it. To release it by receiving it. By filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Not holding out an empty cup and hoping against hope that somone will put something in it, but by understanding that we are who we need to be, and we have what we need to have. And then pouring out that FULL cup all over everybody we come into contact with. Giving what we've got instead of always trying to get something we think we haven't got. Letting what's inside come out. Letting the fullness of God's love manifest in us, and through us, and as us!