Resurrection Life part 5
When Jesus said He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly, He brought something with Him. He brought the love of God. That love is what makes the abundant life... abundant. That love is the difference between life as we have always known it... and His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love! He took us out of where we were and brought us into where He is. WHO He is. Which, for the record, is heaven. He gave us the days of heaven on earth. So that we could experience everything He has for us. So that we could experience everything He is IN us. It's all about love. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Look at Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." When we had nothing to offer, Jesus gave us everything. Everything He has and everything He is. Simply because He loves us and wants us to have it. Simply because His life is more excellent than the one we were struggling through. No true parent wants to see their children suffer and struggle. And, listen, as a parent I can say that there are some battles I can't fight for my kid. Some things he has to go through in order to get to the other side. But having said that, I'm doing everything in my power to teach him HOW to get through those things. To set him up for success. To put him in the best position to succeed that I can put him in. I always quote the verse in Provebs that speaks of training up a child in the way he SHOULD go. So much and so often we spend all of our attention on the negative stuff. Even in the context of trying to get rid of it. "Get the sin out of the camp." But whatever you focus on is what becomes your reality. If you're constantly focused on the "bad" stuff, that's what your life will be filled with. What you feed is what will grow. What you starve is what will wither and die. So all you have to do is set your affection on things above and not on things on the earth. All you have to do is focus on the good--the God, the love--and watch THAT become your reality. What you magnify in your life is what will manifest in your life. You don't have to fight the darkness. All you have to do is shine the light. This little light of mine, right? I'm gonna let it shine. Just let your light shine. That's how you experience the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love that is the gift of God! Not by trying to earn it--it's a gift. You can't earn a gift. You must simply receive it and release it--but by knowing and believing that you already have it. And experiencing it by giving it away. The gift is love. Love is giving. Jesus gave His life for us when we had nothing to give to Him. But now we have something. Now we have His life. His love. His Spirit. Now we can stop trying to get something we think we haven't got, and we can simply rest in the truth of what we have got. We can let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Receiving it BY releasing it, and releasing it by receiving it. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we have already been filled with by being still and knowing that He is God. Think about this--you can't give what you don't have. So if you make that first step and love someone... that means, on some level, you believe you are loved. Otherwise you couldn't even make an attempt at it. So don't be afraid of giving what you've got. That's how you experience it and enjoy it. That's how you experience the Resurrection Life that you've been given. You experience that life... by living. By loving!