But in the end it comes back down to Love. We are called to love God with everything we have, and then to love others as we love ourselves. Of which the whole basis revolves round knowing how much God loves us then we are comfortable in that love and then knowing who we are so that when we love others it is from a basis of not needing their love because we know we are made the way God planned, even if its different from someone else, and even if we still have to tidy up a bit round the edges. But this we know that because God loves us so much and so totally unconditionally He will help us with this. So when we go to other people we do not need them to give us anything. But also we do not need to justify who we are.
But I think the only way we can get there is if we study and find out totally who Jesus is and why He came to earth - not letting someone else tell us through sermons and books, etc - and what God is really saying, and the only way we can really do this is to do some really proper Bible study for ourselves both with study aids and with us and the Holy Spirit. Interestingly all of which will take time and effort.
And also as I was reading recently we can only be interdependent, which is where we should be aiming for if we are truly independent and know who we are and what we stand for.
So often we put the cart before the horse and try to love other before we even like ourselves, and we try to love ourselves before we have accepted how much God loves us. Let's try and turn it around - find out how much God loves us, then really get into loving Him, then get secure with ourselves because of that unconditional love and then go and give this all away to others, because then we really would have something to give away
I was reading through your post thinking "yes, yes" and then at the end I thought "yes and no". I think you are so right that our focus should be on loving God first, then ourselves and then others but I am not so sure we need to get ourselves secure before we give away to others and I am not really sure that is what you really meant. I think part of being interdependent is giving away what you already have but keeping in mind the focus of learning to see ourselves as God sees us, loving him and ourselves so we can give out more later.
ReplyDeleteActually think that was what I really meant. I was chatting to a friend on yahoo chat at the same time so think I missed that plot!
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting