God is love.
God so loved that He gave His Son.
You see, love is other-centered.
God shows us what that looks like and feels like. We love because He first loved us. To try to understand love by looking anywhere
but God is useless. Only He has pure
motives, and it is to this deep level (even subconscious level) that we want to
search out all we can know about love.
When you know that you are loved first, it really changes things. There is nothing you can do to add to
"the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth." God's love is not a business
transaction. We cannot buy
anything. We can only respond. When you are loved in this way...so freely
and purely...you can have the second fruit.
Joy.
When you know and believe that you are a loving and
lovable child of God, you can have joy.
It is so freeing to live from the place of love. You recognize that God delights in you and
you can learn to delight in Him. In the
meantime, your response to this truth that you don't have to prove anything to
God is a peaceful place to be. Joy
allows you to be thankful from a place that is response instead of buying
something...my work instead of His. This
love/joy response colors each day with promise and potential. Even the hard days are better because we are
loved and the joy response helps us with everything.
The next fruit is peace. This is amazing. You see, when you know you are a loving and
lovable child of God, you start seeing other people that way, too. When you can really trust God with your own
journey, you can trust Him with the journey of others. The journey responsibility is God's...for me
and others. Trusting from this
standpoint is done from a God-centered motive.
Responsibility is a matter of listening to God about how you help
Him. It is not about getting on your
self-righteous high horse in judgment.
Intercession is your given role as a work with God in the
heavenlies. Judgment and criticism are counterfeits for intercession. What we see in others that we judge is
because it is in ourselves...the mote and beam concept in the Bible. If you spot it, you've got it.
Intercession does not mean that you take your punch
list with everything that is wrong with people to God...a subtle way of
judging. It means that first of all you
get before God and see why it is that you recognize this stuff in someone
else. You see, the recognition of their
faults is an invitation to do your own personal healing so that from a pure
heart you can pray for others. This
healing process gives you much insight into what to pray. This role of intercession is really an
amazing process and a wonderful opportunity.
Again, we must trust God with the work of this intercession rather than
turn it into a real big responsibility.
He is God. We are not.
Trusting God versus assuming God's responsibility is
a big issue of respect. Respect to God,
others, and self. This place of
vulnerability takes courage. It is a
place of willingness to put down the self-agendas that we have for
others...invested in outcome because we think our way is the best or right way. When we value others as God does, we will
stop playing God in their lives.
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