When God wanted to change the world, what did He do? He let go. The Father let go of Jesus. Jesus let go of any position or power and became the most vulnerable of creatures – a baby.
The greatest example we can follow is the one that God displayed for us. As He looked at the world that He created, He saw a society that was filled with pain, sin, and brokenness. Jesus chose to SPEND HIMSELF on us. He let go of His very life so that we could be free! “This is how we know what love is…” That’s a line we might want to pay attention to. If we want to love the way Jesus loves, we must let go of our grasp on self-focused attitudes.
The Lord is asking us to follow in His way. We can look to a Father who understands the difficulty of letting go, and respond to His call. We can look to Jesus who knows what it is to spend Himself and lean on Him for strength. Isn’t our goal to be like Him? He asks us to open our eyes to others who are in need and to “love them with actions and truth.” It seems that to God, loving others and letting go are inseparable. We attempt to love others and still have ALL of the comforts and conveniences that our hearts desire. What if there is an aspect of true freedom and happiness that can only come by letting go of things that hold a position in our hearts that God wants to hold Himself? It is unbelievable love that asks something so great of us, and then gives us more than we ever could have imagined in return.
We will spend the rest of the week exploring what this means in our lives. We can be encouraged that as God is calling us to let go of some things, we are not alone… we are serving Someone who understands, Someone who has walked this road of letting go long before us.
Work //
Jesus spent Himself for us. Think about how God spent Himself on your behalf. Ask Him to begin to expose the areas in your life that you are holding too tightly. Make a list of a few ways that your time, energy, and money may be being spent on things that hinder you from laying your life down for others. Ask God to change your mind and heart in those areas. Then Read the following:
“We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.”
1 John 3:16-18 NLT
Excerpt taken from 30 Days of Heart Work
