Nov 14, 2018
Above all, love each
other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1Peter 4:8
Don't love people in
order to receive blessing, love in order to create blessing.
Thanksgiving may be the best thing America has ever
created! (Yes, that’s a bold theory.)
Consider what that season means to our lives. Thanksgiving marks the end of a season of
harvest, where we take time to appreciate what has been produced. It is usually a time when people take a step
back and remember their blessings, which creates a much more positive
attitude. It tends to kick off our
Holiday season, giving everyone a chance to join together in celebration. It brings together families, builds
communities, offers a Sabbath, and
much more.
One of the joys of that holiday is the chance to count our
blessings.
Most people interchange the idea of “blessing” with “gain”. In our humanness, we think of blessing as
something we gained – whether it is a better career, new job, more income,
birth of a child, greater relationships or improvement in life. But Jesus doesn’t associate blessing with
gain. In fact, looking at the
Beatitudes, you would never consider those blessings as gain (persecution,
mourning, meekness, purity, etc.). That’s
because blessing is not about gaining more in the world, blessing is about
receiving God’s Lasting Goodness.
A child was being
extra special to their dad one holiday season, trying to make up for his poor
treatment over the year when dad and mom divorced. One of the other siblings noticed the change
in attitude, and watched carefully while he cleaned up dishes and served his
father. Later that evening in a private
moment, the older sibling asked the child why the change. The serving child responded: “Christmas is
coming and I don’t want to lose out on getting his gifts.”
Unfortunately, we can look at God the same way. Loving to Get is a philosophy that seems to
work for us. So we try that with
God. We want His gifts, His protection,
His provision, and certainly His blessings as long as they mean gain. So we’ll attend church a few times, say our
prayers for a week, treat our spouse or family a little better, and try to “be
good”, hoping God will bless our lives. But
if God wants change or wants to give us things that are good FOR us, we’re not interested.
Here’s the catch to blessing – Loving is not designed to receive blessing… it’s designed to create blessing! There is a BIG Difference. Loving to get NEVER works, because loving is
not about getting, it’s about giving. Love
isn’t designed to be a vacuum cleaner, sucking in all the blessings. Love is designed to be more like a
dishwasher, creating blessing for everything it touches.
This thanksgiving, take time to consider your blessings –
but instead of listing your gains, consider your creations. How has God used you to create
blessings? Most likely, you were the one
more blessed than the recipients.
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