Provision part 4
I've been teasing this Rant for a while. We've been focusing on how my God has provided all your need, right? He knows what you need before you even ask for it. He made grass for a cow to eat before He ever mad a cow. But He is also ready, willing, and able to do abundantly more than we could ask or even think! Let's link two verses together. Proverbs 13:12, "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." And, Psalm 37:4, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Needs and wants, right? Two completely different things. But God cares about them both. We can cast our cares on Him... because He cares for us. He doesn't just want us to survive, He wants us to THRIVE! Here's the key, though, because (as always) this is NOT an if-then statement. This is not God telling us what to do as much as it is God telling us how to do it. It's not "If you delight yourself in Him, then He will give you the desires of your heart." That's how we think things work. And maybe, to a degree, that is how they work in the natural. Do good and you will be rewarded, right? But watch this: the true desire of our heart... is God. It is love. So delighting ourselves in Him is really fulfilling the desire of our hearts! What else could the heart possibly be concerned with but love? And what (who) is God? Love! It's all about love. When the desire comes, it is a tree of life. Our true desire (and, yes, I know this is also a basic human need) is love. To be loved and to love. To be known and to know. To fill ourselves to overflowing with what God has filled us with--His love. And to let that love, then, come out naturally. With every breath we take and every move we make. Love is our new (true) nature. Love is what we desire. And it's only when we feel like we don't have that love that we turn our desires to anything and everything else. We feel like there is a God-shaped, love-shaped void inside of us. And we're desperate to fill it. So we look for love in all the wrong places and we settle for way less. Here's the news: You can't fill a God-shaped, love-shaped void with anything but God. But love! And instead of looking for it, or trying to earn it, we ought to just go to the source. When the desire comes, it is a Tree of Life. When we delight ourselves in Him (in love) the desire of our heart (love) is fulfilled! Instead of trying to get something we think we haven't got, we ought to just be grateful for, and enjoy, and share, what we have got. And in that way EXPERIENCE what we have got. Love is giving. You experience it when you give it away. When you share it. When you let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. At the most basic level the desire of our heart is love. That's what we need... and that's what we want. And, by the way, that's what we have! That's the gift of God. He is our provision. He has given us everything we need. And, in giving us what we need, He has given us what we want! It's just a matter of receiving it. Knowing what we really want and knowing that we have what we really want. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. But usually that's because we're hoping for the wrong thing. When we know what we have, and have what we want (what we really want... love) that's when we can live with that attitude of gratitude. That's when we can live out of our abundance. That's when we can stop worrying about ourselves and instead we can put our time, talent, and treasure into loving God by loving people!