Trees of Righteousness part 5
The secret of life, in my humble opinion, is receiving and releasing the gift of God. Breathing His Spirit (of love) in and out with every breath we take and every move we make. Understanding who WE are by understanding who HE is. Because as He is, so are we in this world. Jesus is our true identity. He is God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in our flesh. Love in our body. Look at 1 John 2:29, "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him." When you know better, you can do better. When you're stumbling around in the dark it's hard to get anywhere. But when the light of the world (that He is, that we are) shines... that's when we can see clearly. When love guides our way we WILL get where we're going. Even if we make some wrong turns. Even if we get lost sometimes along the way. God is more powerful than our mistakes. He can get us--and keep us--on the right path. God allows U-turns. And, in fact, I believe He encourages them. He doesn't want us to suffer. He wants us to thrive. He wants us to have an abundant life. And He knows that love is what makes life abundance. Living out of your abundance means living out of the love that He has given us. Receiving and releasing His love. Knowing and believing it is inside so that it can come out naturally. Because whatever you believe is inside WILL come out. It has to. It's too big not to. The key, as I said, is knowing and believing. If you know HE is righteous, you can begin to understand that YOU are righteous. Because we are the righteousness of God in Christ. It's not our own righteousness. It's HIS righteousness. It's all about God because it's all about love. He planted us in His garden. Trees of righteousness for His glory. And He planted Himself in us. So that HE can come out of us. Everyone who does righteousness--which says to me that your actions matter. What you do matters--is born of God. Because true righteousness can only come from Him. He is the Gardener. He casts the trees that don't produce fruit into the fire. So that the only tree left is Him. The Tree of Life. Which produces the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. He is the vine and we are the branches. We bear the fruit that He produces. He gives us the ball and we run with it. All the deeds that He did and greater deeds. Because the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Because LOVE dwells in us. Think about it--there are people in your life that nobody can reach... except you. That's why God put you where you are. That's why He made you WHO you are. Love isn't just what you do, it is who you are. Trees of righteousness born of God displaying His mercy, and grace, and forgiveness, and righteousness, and holiness, and love! That's why we were created. We are God's love letter to the world. We are the way He expresses Himself. Expresses His love. He expresses Himself to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. In Him we live, and move, and have our being. We can't live without Him because He is life. To live is to love and to love is to live. He loves us (first) and because of that love we love Him back by loving each other. We make the fruit that He has produced available to each other. We let Him fill us up with Himself, His Spirit, His love... and then we fill ourselves up to overflowing with what we've already been filled with so that it can come out of us into each other! Love is giving. You can give without loving but you can't love without giving. So give what you've got. Be who you are. And do whatever you do heartily--to the best of your ability, because it's in your heart to do it!