Giving part 5
Love is giving. When your heart is full of love, you will have that intense desire to give what you've got. You'll see a need and you'll WANT to fill it. That's what it means to do things heartily--doing something to the best of your ability, because it's in your heart to do it. And that's God working in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Look at 1 John 4:19, "We love him, because he first loved us." That sets up the Divine Order of things. That sets up how everything works, and flows. That sets up the New Commandment--to love one another as Jesus loves you. It all starts with God. And, really, it all ends with Him too. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end. Love loves us so that we can love love back by loving the people that we come into contact with. All good and perfect gifts flow from the Father of lights. And if our heavenly Father is the Father of lights... that means WE are the lights. Jesus referred to Himself as the light of the world, and He referred to us as the light of the world. It's the same light. His life is the light of men. His love is what lights the way. Shows us what to do, and how to do it. So when you have--I started this Rant series asking my son what I should write about. He said giving to the poor. So when you have this desire inside your heart... that's God. You should always follow your heart. Every time we pass someone on the road with a sign asking for help... my kid wants to help them. And we can't always do it, but when we can... we do. It's the small things in life that are the big things in life. It's the little things that you can do... that you should do. Because they aren't really little at all. Sometimes they make all the difference. Let me say it like this: You aren't called to change the world. You're simply called to love. But when you love someone... you change THEIR world. When someone has lost hope, and then you show them a more excellent way, you restore something in them. You bring them back to a place they had given up on. A place that is so much better than this idea of the world that we have accepted. We have accepted that things are bad and getting worse. That it doesn't matter what we do because nothing ever gets better. But that's a lie. That's what the world would have you believe. In order to keep you right where you are. God doesn't want you to stay right where you are. He wants you to constantly and consistently move upward and onward. Upward and GOD-ward. He wants you to receive and release His love, and in that way improve things. Improve things for yourself, and for those around you. That's what love does. I spent a lot of time not too long ago Ranting about the garden inclosed. And about how everything that is needed is already in the garden. About how it is only when the wind (of the Holy Spirit) begins to blow that what's inside comes out and everybody can begin to enjoy it. So don't keep what you've got inside. Let it out. Fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. Know it and believe it. Receive it and release it. Do what you can do, when you can do it, for whoever you can do it for. Don't despise small beginnings, and don't worry about the things you can't do. Just do what you can. Just be who you are. Give what you've got. By knowing and believing that you've got it. That's what love is. Love is giving. Knowing you have something worth giving... and giving it. Laying your life down for your friends. Letting what's inside come out. Helping people however and whenever you can. Just being the you that you were created to be. That's what this life is all about and that's what this life is for!