Release part 4
Some Bible stories just stick with you, right? Well, this is one that always has for me: Jesus is hungry and tells His disciples to go get some food. In the meantime He meets a girl and ministers to her. Then this happens: "Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, "Rabbi, eat something." But Jesus replied, "I have a kind of food you know nothing about." "Did someone bring him food while we were gone?" the disciples asked each other. Then Jesus explained: "My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work" (John 4:31-34 NLT). Remember that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God? Doing that will is what satisfies our appetite. Because His will is for us to love one another. And we love one another by letting Him first love us, and then filling ourselves to overflowing with that love. Receiving it and releasing it. Receiving it BY releasing it. And the part that always stuck with me was that Jesus was refreshed not by getting but by giving. We have it backwards so many times. We feel a lack and we think we need to fill that lack. We think we don't have something, so we need to get it. And we think we need to get it by any means possible. By hook or by crook, as they say. But Jesus spoke about that in John chapter 10. About how anybody trying to get into the sheepfold any other way but the door is a robber and a thief. Catch this now: WE are the robber when we try to earn something that can't be earned. When we try to get something we've already got. Because when we do that we are robbing OURSELVES from EXPERIENCING the gift we've been given. You can't enjoy what you've got when you're wasting your Three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) trying to get stuff. Especially when what you're trying to get is exactly the thing that you've got. Wizard of Oz style, right? The desire of our heart is to be loved. And God (who IS love) created us for the sole, express purpose of loving us. There is never a time when we haven't been wrapped in His loving arms. Even in the beginning when we were dark, and void, and without form. Even then the Spirit of the Lord hovered over the deep. Even when we run from Him, He has sworn to never leave us nor forsake us. When we were yet sinners--before the cross--and had nothing to offer God, He proved His love for us by giving us everything. Everything He has and everything He is. Jesus didn't just give His life FOR us, He gave His life TO us. Simply, beautifully, because He wanted us to have it. Because He wanted to share it with us. We don't try to live Jesus' life. We experience it by letting Him live it in us, and through us, and as us. We experience His love by loving others. We receive His love by releasing it to others. Because love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. And when we give what we've got, that's when we are truly... ourselves. Our nourishment comes from doing the will of God. From letting Him love us, and from loving each other with that same love. That's what this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love is all about. Just let God love the hell out of you and then turn around and love the hell out of everybody you come into contact with. Fill yourself to overflowing with what HE has already filled you with. And let it come out... naturally. Receive it BY releasing it!