Greener Grass part 2
If you always think the grass is greener on the other side, you need to do a better job of tending your own patch. Look at Genesis 2:15 (NLT), "The LORD God placed the man in the Garen of Eden to tend and watch over it." The garden was a finished work. But God put US in charge of it. I keep talking about John 14:12 (NLT), "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father." See, it was one thing when Jesus walked the earth as ONE man. He healed all of the people that He personally came into contact with. But that was seriously limited. If you didn't know about Him, or couldn't get to Him--look at some of the stories of some of the lengths people went to, just to touch the hem of His robe, or taking out a ceiling panel just to get in His path--then what remedy was there for you? But when Jesus died, and was buried, and rose again... and then ascended up to heaven... the Holy Spirit descended. Jesus went up and His Spirit came down. Now His Spirit dwells in us. So we can heal anybody we come into contact with. And in that way, in a sense, we can do greater works than Him. He touched people on the shores of Galilee. We can touch people all over the world. Wherever we are. He gave us the ball. We take it and run with it. He gave us the garden. We tend it and watch over it. And when you're busy with your own thing--focusing on what you have and not what you don't--then you won't even be able to worry about anybody else's. You can just be who you are, where you are. You can love people without envying them. You can let what's inside come out by knowing and believing it's in there. I'm telling you, this attitude of gratitude makes life so much easier. You don't have to get all fired up comparing yourself to others. Especially since we only seem to compare ourselves to others in a negative sense. We never seem to say, "Look what I've got, compared to what little they've got... let me give them some of what I've got." That's the right attitude to have, but it seems rare. More often it's, "I wish I had what they had." Which means you're neglecting to appreciate what YOU have. You're missing out on what you've got by chasing what you haven't got. The thief the Jesus spoke of in John 10:10 is not the devil. It is trying to get into the sheepfold any other way but through the door. Jesus is the sheepfold, and Jesus is the door. It's all Jesus. All love. He is the straight and narrow way that leads to life. So instead of trying to be someone we're not in order to get something that we think we haven't got, all we really need to do is use what we HAVE got. All we really need to do is give what we've got, and in that way experience what we've got. Maybe the grass IS greener on the other side. But maybe that's because you simply need to water your own grass. Take care of what you've been entrusted with. Take the ball and run with it. Give what you've got. Fill yourself up to overflowing with what God has already filled you with and let what's inside come out. Tend and watch over your own patch, and don't worry about what anybody else is doing. Help if you can but don't be jealous. What someone else has, has nothing to do with you. Stay in your lane and do what you can do!