Settled part 3
When you've settled the love issue--when you know (and believe) in your heart of hearts that God is love and He loves you--that's when everything else begins to flow. When you're standing on that foundation--that Rock--that's when you can start building. Look at Luke 6:48, "He is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock." When you're rooted and grounded in love... when you're settled and resting upon the right foundation... that's when you can withstand anything. That's when you can stand and not be shaken. That's when you can get through whatever you're going through. Love never fails because love endures, right? And when you have peace on the inside (which is a big part of what it means to be settled) that peace will exude to the outside. Blessed are the peace MAKERS. But you can't give what you don't have. You can't produce something out of nothing. It all flows from the source. From the God who is love. That's where our peace comes from. That's why we can stop running around like chickens with our heads cut off looking for love in all the wrong places. It doesn't matter when kind of wind, or rain, or flood comes into our lives. We can endure. Long suffering isn't about suffering for a long time. Its about having the patience and the grit and the stick to it to make it to the other side. But, like I've been Ranting about recently, being settled doesn't mean being stuck. Its easy to do things "because that's how they've always been done." But that doesn't always make it right. Some things we do because they work. But I don't like obligations. I don't like doing things just to do them. That's one of the things I try very hard to teach my seven year old: Always do things for a reason. Always know why you're doing what you're doing. Do it because its in your heart to do it. Do it because love made you do it. When you have the "God is love and He loves you (and me)" issue settled... that's when you can really truly love people. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. When you know you have love... when you know you are loved... you can love. Because you don't just HAVE love. You ARE love. Its about receiving AND releasing. Receiving BY releasing. Releasing by receiving. Letting God love the hell out you and loving Him back by loving each other. Taking what has been settled in your spirit (by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth... the truth that--one more time--God is love and He loves you) and then DOING something with it. Faith without works is dead. Because our actions flow from our beliefs. What we believe is what we do. What we believe is inside is what comes out. Its not about settling for anything less than. Its about settling the truth in our hearts so that we can live out of our hearts. Keeping our hearts with diligence so that they remain open and the issue of life--LOVE--can flow in and out. You can love in the midst of a storm because you are planted, and settled, and rooted, and grounded... in love!