Lack part 2
I have no lack because my God has no lack. John 1:3 says, "All things were made by him; and without him was not anything thing made that was made." Jesus, the Creator of all, gave His all to us. He wanted us to have His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life... so He gave it to us. He didn't make us jump through hoops to earn it. He just wanted us to have it, so He gave it to us. I don't make my son jump through hoops before I give him his dinner. He needs it, I want him to have it, so I give it to him. And, listen, the fact that he's grateful for it is icing on the cake. But the fact remains--if he has a good day, I feed him. If he has a bad day, I feed him. The provision passed down from father to son (or Father to Son) isn't something that can be earned. That's what I think I'm trying to say. Fathers care for their Son(s) because they love them. Period. And think about this for a moment: If God is love (and He is), and everything that was made was made by Him--and through Him, because you can't make something out of nothing, it is all an extension of the Creator--then everything was made by love, and through love, and for love. Love is the thing we truly think we lack. And living from that supposed (albeit false) place of lack is what gets us into so much trouble so much of the time. I believe very strongly in 2 Corinthians 5:14 (NLT), "Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life." I believe that Christ's love controls us either one of two ways: 1. We believe Christ loves us and we do everything we can to experience that love by sharing it, by giving it away. Or 2. We don't believe that Christ loves us and we do everything we can in order to get that love that we think we are lacking. We live that "old life," the rat race, trying to get, get, get... or we believe that we have died to our old life and we walk in newness of life. We either try to build our own Kingdom, or we rest in the loving arms of our heavenly Father and experience and enjoy the Kingdom HE built. The Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of heaven. The Kingdom of love! He gave us the keys to the Kingdom. He gave us His love! What else could unlock the Kingdom of love but love! When you have love, you have all you will ever need. And, listen, I'm not saying you don't need to take care of business. Paul said, "You don't work, you don't eat," or words to that effect. But I'm saying, as the Beatles said, "Love is all you need." Love is what makes life worth living. Love is what makes it possible to live. Because, as we know, to live is to love and to love is to live. You can't have one without the other because they are not just connected, they are the same thing! We were made BY love, and filled WITH love. Love is our true identity, our innermost being. Love is not just what we do, love is who we are. And love is giving. Having no lack is less about what you "have" and more about what you DO with what you have. If you hoard things up then you waste them. But if you give what you've got... you experience what you've got in such a real and powerful way. Love is giving. Having no lack means living out of your abundance! Giving what you've got!