Perspective part 3
When you're filled wtih grace--up to your eyeballs--you become graceful. You see things differently, and you react to things differently. Instead of letting what is outside dictate to you... you let what is inside dictate to what's going on. You don't judge according to appearance, but you judge righteous judgment. You receive and release the love of God. You let Him love you--by knowing and believing that He DOES love you, though the Holy Spirit--and you love others with that same love. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, right? The beginning and the end? And God is love. So that means LOVE is the beginning and the end. We start with love, end with love, and very quickly find out that love is everything in between. And here's the key: We have to, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2). I'll tell you, you CAN stumble over things and find what you didn't even know you were looking for. You CAN get knocked off your donkey and blinded by the light like Saul when he was changed to Paul. But for the most part it goes like this, "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Luke 11:9). We find it when we look in the right place. When we look within. When we set our minds on things above and don't let the things that are already under our feet drag us down. When we stop making mountains out of molehilss and start to understand that Jesus brought the mountains low and the valleys high. He made the way straight. And now we can just lay all that stuff aside instead of letting it trip us up. We don't have to decide who "deserves" love and who doesn't. We don't have to judge according to good and evil. We can understand that good and evil are on the same tree, and we can understand that Jesus cursed that tree because it couldn't produce any fruit. We can forget about that tree altogether and focus on the OTHER tree. Not the tree of knowledge of good and evil (the fig tree), but the Tree of Life! And the fruit of THAT tree is the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. It's all about love. We feast on it until we are filled to overflowing with it. We stop looking for love in all the wrong places when we know that we are connected to the source. When we know that He is the vine, and we are the branches. He produced the fruit, because He IS the fruit, and all we do is bear it. All we do is share it with those that we come into contact with. Because that's what our new perspective reveals: Everybody needs love. It's the most basic human desire. Everybody needs it... and we have it. So let's give them what we've got. No matter what they might do. If they do something "bad" it's probably because they're trying to get what we've got any which way they can. So instead of punishing people, let's have compassion. Let's see them the way God sees them. The way He sees US. Let's change our perspective, and be transformed by that renewing of our mind. We already have the mind of Christ. All we have to do is let the mind of Christ that we already have BE in us. We have to USE it. What good is a gift if you leave it in the box and never use it? If you don't use it, in a sense, you lose it. Because you rob yourself of the gift you've been given. And you rob all those you come into contact with of experiencing it with you, and through you! Receive it and release it!