Arms vs Feet

“But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it…It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:7, 11-13

Can I just say isn’t it amazing how intricately God works everything out? He builds on what He’s taught and reveals new stuff when we’re ready for it. I’m just amazed at how detail oriented everything is when there is so much creation with so much detail!

I didn’t even expect Ephesians 4 to go along with what I’d been learning, but when I checked back on it, there was so much to it that builds on and enhances the message of His love and loving others.

First, just to go along with the last post, Christ apportioned grace to each of us (Ephesians 4:7). He is the one who decides what and how much, and He is fair. He knows what each of us needs. Sometimes I can get upset about what someone else has been assigned to do. That’s dumb. They don’t have control over what Christ apportioned for them. So again, if you have issue with what someone else has or does, and naturally, we do from time to time, go to Him about it. Confess it. Find out how you fit into “the body”, seek Him to see what He has apportioned for you. And then move forward, knowing He knows each of us, knows what we can become through His grace, and be obedient in the task He’s given you right now. He’s pursued you, loves you, and longs to give you so much more than what you can find on your own.

Look to Him the “head” of the body for instruction. Thank goodness when my brain tells my arms what to do, they can go about their business because the foot is not upset it wasn’t appointed to be the arm and is now doing its best to interfere with the arms’ work. The foot knows I need it to be a foot. That it has important purpose even though it’s literally a lowly position. Because in the end, the knee, the arm, the foot, nor the stomach is the star. It’s about the body as a whole. And when I am absorbed in figuring out what everyone else’s parts and purposes are and either feeling like I’m not as important as them or they are not as important as me, I am keeping the body from doing what the head, Christ, has intended.

Each part is important, and each part is enabled with a purpose. I’m so glad God has shown me this lesson that my job is to follow what He has for me. From both sides of the spectrum, if I feel like I’m too important to do it or that I’m not equipped enough to do it, I am hindering His work. He apportioned it. He knows and sees the whole picture. So I need to trust Him and obey, because I definitely don’t want to be a hindrance to His body’s work.

I want to see and be amazed at His plans and how He’s worked everything out and used each of us for a glorious purpose. I want to celebrate with my fellow “body parts” because He values and equips each of us to work together when we are nothing on our own. How marvelous. How wonderful.

“From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Ephesians 4:15

Petty, Pouty Punk

So what I want to talk about today is how God has merged His love for us and loving others into one piece that is greater than the sum of the two parts. The two go hand and hand to mean more than they do on their own. God’s love for us is astounding on its own, but when it’s coupled with loving others it is even more vivid to us. “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12). And coming right back around, we cannot love as we ought without His love.

Just this year, God has revealed the antidote of what has plagued me for years when it comes to loving others. You may be like me (hopefully not), but I can get jealous. It can be over someone’s singing or musical ability. It can be some position they have. It can be over them catching someone’s eye. It can be over your sister winning Pretty, Pretty Princess and you turning into Petty, Pouty Punk. I’m not proud of this.

When I feel jealous, it’s usually because I’m insecure or discontent with what I have. Learning about God’s intimate, detailed love helps take that away. God knows what we need and makes a way to provide for it before we are even aware. And when I’m looking around at what everyone else has, I’ve taken my eyes off the source of life. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). What is so ridiculous is I get jealous about what I don’t have and eventually hear that voice say to me, “Did you even ask me for this?”

It took me realizing God loves and cares for me, cares about the stupid things as well as the big things. He sees me and has a plan and will provide for me. He sees you too and will meet your needs and satisfy you more than money, positions, and popularity ever could.

So let’s stop making it about other people and how much they have and how little we have and instead, go to our Heavenly Father who gives good gifts when we are ready for them. I don’t blame Him at all for not giving me talents or positions when I’m acting like a brat. Let’s recognize He is all we need and humbly lay our requests at His feet.

Then we can rejoice with each other over how gracious God is that He would give to us and use us for His perfect purposes.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:11-13

What Does It Mean?

Reading and studying Ephesians 3 has been huge for me because honestly, I have trouble believing God really loves me. Like is in-love-with-me-adores-me loves me. That type. At best I think He tolerates me. Just to really show how crazy I am, I get suspicious when He’s good to me. Like there’s this balance He uses that has to be at equilibrium, so if there’s something that just went into the blessings side, trouble is coming. Why would He love us? As a human, I don’t think there’s an answer. That’s why we just have to have faith that what is said in His word is true. So instead of trying to figure out why He would and if it’s really true, let’s pursue this love that is higher, wider, deeper, truer than we’ve ever known.

After spending time in Ephesians, I felt directed to 1 John 3:16-24.

            This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone had material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

  

          Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

I love talking and thinking about God’s love for us, but it’s worth so much more when it turns into us loving each other. And when we’re close to Him, it should be the result and fruit of His presence and work in us.  In the next chapter, John says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

So I’ve said before, I want to see how knowing God’s love for me changes my life, and this has been one of the immediate ways. I see loving my brothers and sisters in a different light and have been learning about it through passages in 1 John that I’ll share in the days to come.

Thank you for reading. The desire to blog on this came from being so thankful and amazed at the things God was showing me, I just wanted to share and I do a lot of talking :-). If you ever feel like discussing what's posted or other topics, please feel free to email or comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

My Brain Just Exploded

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

I don’t even know how to express how amazed I am over verse 20. The God of the Universe, Lord over nations, peoples, waters, land, animals, sees and knows every detail of your life. He knows your dreams, your desires, your fears, your secret wishes, and every place you’ve been. Now think of the wildest thing, your biggest hope or wish, and move past it. It’s not possible for our minds, but it’s possible for Him. And He doesn’t just go a little past what we dream of, he goes “immeasurably.” To infinity and beyond. My brain has not the capacity to think of it, but God does and it’s not even hard for Him. Incredible is not a challenge for God. It’s the same as us opening our eyes when we wake up on a weekend morning after sleeping in. Effortlessly. Are you fired up? He is able to do that for you and for me.

Now to the entrée. He does more than we can imagine “according to his power that is at work within us.” As someone who grew up in church from a young age, I had an early case of legalism. I wanted to be good enough for God. I was very focused on works and making myself look good and sort of forgetting that I actually needed to be saved and I couldn’t do it myself.

Now, if you noticed the earlier entries, which did we encounter first? Grasp God’s love or compel God to love you because of all your beautiful, lovely, good works? The latter doesn’t even show up. Who is it that does the work in us? Us? No. It’s God. Praise the Lord, it is God’s power at work in us. God loves my sorry self just as I am. I don’t have to earn His love. He wants me to be dropped right in the middle of it, to fill me with Himself, and then to work in me to create more than I can ask or imagine. Is that not the most unbelievable, gracious, compassionate thing ever? I have nothing to say but, “who am I that You would be so good to me?” And the answer, my friends, has nothing to do with who I am. It is all about who God is. He loves and gives what we do not deserve. And He brings glory to Himself because of it.

And may all glory belong to such a wonderful, majestic God for all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

An Order of Love. Hold the Fear, Please.

For so long, all my life practically, I have not loved. You know, the 1 Corinthians 13 way that puts others above myself with love that is patient, kind, and never failing. The reason I love is to receive something in return. I love as an exchange. I love out of insecurity and fear. And it is a poor substitute for loving the way God’s love intends. When I receive a favorable response, I am relieved. When I don’t, I am crushed and devastated. And that is in no way, shape, or form how God planned it to be. That is not genuine love.

I want to love unselfishly. I want to love standing on the grand, unfathomable love of my God being able to give completely and freely, knowing whatever I have given He will replenish. That I don’t need a return from others because His love is enough. “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” 1 Peter 5:10. Reading a verse like that makes me think, who am I to try to protect myself when God Himself will restore me?

On the way to a movie, a friend and I were talking about how we feel so much happier when we are content with ourselves and our actions. This evolved into resolving to do good for others without fear of their reactions. Sometimes we feel vulnerable doing something that shows love because we’re afraid of how the other person will react. What if they don’t like me/love me as much as I do and now they’ll know by this action? What if they freak out because I’m showing more regard than they’re ready for? What if they think I’m weird?

But a light bulb turned on and I said, “Why should we be the ones that feel bad when we do something that is good and kind for someone else?” Are you really the one with the problem when you’ve decided to do something kind and generous for someone? Who cares about seeming forward? Shouldn’t we just love? It feels so much better knowing you’re doing what you’re supposed to instead of worrying about how someone will react.

You can always spot that kind of person immediately. I love meeting someone and getting the sense that they are truly interested in me and care about me. I’m drawn to it. I want to be like that. I want to build up and encourage those around me. I want to be gracious and compassionate. I want to be the hands and feet of Christ. So often I put my needs first, but I’m praying day by day I will be crucified with Christ so that it’s not me living, but Christ in me (Galatians 2:20).

Questions: You know what I mean? Have you ever felt that way too?

The Post that Should Have Been Titled "Love That Surpasses Knowledge"

“and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19

I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS PART!!!!!! For reals, caps lock does not do it justice. The words should be bounding out of your computer screen right now.

“Know this love that surpasses knowledge.” Every time we know His love, we are experiencing something supernatural. His love can’t be known because it surpasses knowledge, but we know it because of the Holy Spirit. Because God enables us to know this love that is wider, higher, deeper than we can imagine.

And then, “filled to the measure” aka full capacity with the fullness of God. Not the partness of God, not the halfness of God, or the sure-you-can-have-some-of-my-attention-while-I-keep-the-universe-in-place-ness of God. It is the fullness. And even more incredible is the fullness can be in us, filled to the measure.

What makes me even more insane with amazement is what being filled with the fullness of God means. When we are completely full of Jesus, we can love genuinely, give graciously, live obediently, and have every need met. How I want to know an absence of fear because I am filled with the fullness of God. How I want to love others just because. No strings attached.

The fullness of God in me means being able to love and give without needing anything in return. Having the power to walk in obedience, knowing He will provide. Having confidence to do more than I can on my own. To go forth and do what’s asked without thinking about how I look or how I’ll be treated. Knowing God in every corner of myself. There’s more of God in me than myself. Seeing what I would normally be blinded to. Being completely satisfied in Him.  Having the ability to bring forth who I am intended to be with no insecurities, no fears, no doubts. I would not be afraid of failing. I would not be afraid of being judged. I would not be afraid my next step wouldn’t be there. It would be living fully. Having the fullness of God—Having the creator, His whole complete self in you. You would never walk alone because He resides in you. I would not be relying on my self, strength, and abilities, I would be relying on Him. What this does for my future is amazing to me. A future relying on something other than my weakness is so much brighter and exciting. It is more than I can ask or imagine like the next verse says. To be a part of something broader and bigger than myself, His love that stretches farther than the universe. It gives me hope. Living in my strength makes me tired just thinking about it, but living in His gives me hope.

A song lyric that helps me articulate what I think about this is from Jill Phillips, “I will not have to fear anymore. All I’ll be capable of is: Holy, holy, holy, holy.” I want to have a single-minded focus to praise the name of the Lord. To live a life that glorifies Him in all I do. When that is all that matters, what have I to fear but not living up to that? And I am equipped to do that when I am filled to the measure with the fullness of God.

Love that Surpasses Knowledge

The next part of focus is Ephesians 3:17b-18.

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ”

“may have power”- so it takes an ability. I’m guessing this is because it is beyond what we can know naturally as humans. It is bigger and more genuine than the purest love we’ve known from another person. We need God to enable us to know His love. In 1 John 4:10, John says love doesn’t resemble the way we love God, but how He loves us, including the sacrifice of His Son.

Also, there’s a togetherness, a community with the statement “may have power together with all the saints”. This gives me a visual of worship. All His people gathering together to worship Him. We also help each other know His love when we are in Bible study or small group talking about what He’s done in our lives.

A couple of years ago, I was coming off of a rebellious time and was ready to seek God again. For a few months, there was distance. I was going to church, but I was not the same. There wasn’t a deep, passionate desire to get up and read my Bible and spend time in prayer like what I had known before. Then one day, I went to a small group and we started to talk about who God is and how we saw Him work in and around us. It reminded me of the times He had delivered me and been faithful to me and as I shared it with the group, I felt that passion and desire come back. It felt like a huge break of whatever had been separating me from Him.

So maybe this is what is meant by having the power with all the saints. Maybe it’s coming together with fellow believers and talking about God’s love toward us. Whenever I get to experience that I usually just feel it expand in and around me.

Another point I get from this verse is the verb “grasp.” I love the Message’s version of this verse because it uses all kinds of actions up in here. “Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights!” Knowing God’s love is an active experience. With a love as massive as His, I can see why to best experience it you can’t stay in one place.

So how can we actively learn about God’s love when we can’t literally “plumb the depths” and “rise to the heights”?

These are some ways I’ve experienced His love and I’m sure there are more:

Pray to know it. Paul is praying for the Ephesians to have power to grasp His love, so wouldn’t it make sense that we pray to know it for ourselves also?

Think about how He’s been faithful and loving to you in the past. Like I said previously, I felt an awareness of His love when I thought of how He’d proven it in the past. He has sacrificed His Son who took on all of our sins so that we might never have to be separated from Him. And He doesn’t just leave us there. He’s made plans for us to have an abundant life (Jeremiah 29:11, John 10:10). He has made the dead alive. He has brought good from evil. What has He done in your life that revealed His love?

Obey Him. When I know God has commanded me to do something and after putting it off for weeks, I finally do it, I know I’m so much closer to Him. I know that what He asked me to do was for my good. Obeying Him and seeing His provisions in that obedience shows me a God who cares enough about me to be involved in every detail. It shows me when I trust Him, He doesn’t let me down.

Questions: How else can we grasp God’s love?