Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.
The things people ask me for are: time, money, forgiveness, love, attention, possessions, my pride, honesty, understanding, patience, perfection, etc.
The things people take from me are: time, money, possessions, my pride, my dignity, etc.
At the end of the day, the Father is the one who owns all of these things. I’m merely the steward. He’s entrusted me with them and at the same time asks me to hold all of them very loosely. I in turn am learning to trust Him with me.
If all of those things were given away by me or taken from me, would I be ok?
Can I love that much?
Can we love that much? I don’t think so. Seriously, I don’t. It’s why we need Jesus. Only His Life in us could possibly love the way we’re called to do. That’s my take on it, anyway
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That is very true, Tracy. The balance is in living with our inability and His ability. Simply put, that love should flow out of me. Easier blogged then done.
So how do we allow Love like that to flow out of us?
Thanks…
Surrender. And I actually am coming to appreciate it more. When I try and love I suck at it. But when I surrender to love, then it seems to flow out of me.
JB…very nice…I agree…I surrender…
For me the “how” is really accepting on a deep level that I do not have what it takes. Only then do I really “see” that I need, as in desperately need, Christ and what He did on the cross. Then Life can flow. Prior to that, not so much!
It’s so opposite of the way I was brought up…to realize that coming to a place of understanding that I don’t have what it takes and that Jesus does is actually what produces the fruit. For years I just would grit my teeth and try to be loving or patient or etc. Damn near killed me…
Thanks, Tracy…
Damn near killed me, too! I am just grateful I didn’t break any teeth during those teeth-gritting days
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Dave, which of those things do you find yourself trying to hold onto more than the others?
An aside: I grind my teeth at night while I sleep. I’m not even going to try and figure out the subconscious meaning behind that.
Dr. J – Probably a little bit of all of them actually. There isn’t one that jumps out as being the top of the list. It depends on the day or the moment, I guess. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to just check off the list one by one and say “Well, got that one, what’s next?”