Settled part 2
When you have the big issue settled, everything else flows from there. Look at Proverbs 4:23, just so we're clear on what we're talking about: "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Love is the issue of life. Love is the desire of our hearts. Love is why we were created. Love is what we live for, and how we live. Because to live is to love. To love is to live. Its all about love. So the issue we need to settle is whether or not we're loved. Because if we don't know (and believe) that God loves us... we'll spend our three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) looking for love in all the wrong places. Trying to earn something that can't be earned. And in so doing we rob ourselves of the gift we've been given. Because here's the deal, as simple as I can make it--God is love and He loves you. That's the ultimate truth of the universe. That's the foundation that we stand on. That we build on. That's the bare minimum of where we need to start. Love--and remember, God IS love--is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end. And everything in between. So keeping our heart (or some translations say "guarding" our heart) isn't about shutting it down once we've been hurt. I know when you touch the fire and get burned you don't probably want to do that again. But the heart is meant to receive and release love. And it can only do that if its open. Every night when I pray with my son I thank God for an open heart that full of love. Filled to overflowing with love so that what's inside comes out... naturally. Its so important that we don't let ourselves become cynical. So important that we are diligent in keeping our hearts open. Because the whole point of the whole thing is (one more time) love. Being loved by God and loving Him back by loving each other with that same love. That's it. That's how we experience the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. We let Him live it in us, and through us, and as us. We experience it by giving it away. Because love is giving. But you can't give what you don't have. You have to have the isse of life settled in order to live. Remember in the last Rant series I said the love that is hidden inside is revealed by love shining on us, and in us, and through us, and as us? Well, that's because it ALL love! I quoted Colossians 1:23 yesterday and I want to do so again today. "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister." So much there. But to me our faith is what grounds us and settles us. Because faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (Jesus, LOVE) of God. Knowing and believing (because you can't believe something you don't know) is what settles the matter for us. Hearing God say, "I love you" with every beat of His heart in our chests is where everything else flows from. His love in us filling us up and coming out of us. Receiving and releasing the love that He loves us with. That's how we truly live this life. Because its a life of love. Life IS love. Love is life. Once that's settled, everything else is just details!