Hosanna Restoration Church

God is big on thinking of others. He thought so much of all of us that Jesus died for us. His word is full of putting others first, and all the benefits to be gotten by doing so. Still, it takes work on our part to get to that point. After all, sometimes we do things with mixed emotions or ulterior motives, but even if we get it wrong we should keep at it.

I was thinking about how I enjoy soaking in the Lords presence. Essentially, it is simply enjoying His love for us. For me, I soak best in worship; others may simply soak in prayer time. However, as I thought about it, it occurred to me that we can soak and soak but if we do not carry that over into our lives, we have been soaking selfishly! Of course, the same can be said of our daily times of devotion or church attendance; if it does not change anything, then nothing has changed.

Right now, we are experiencing crisp sunny cold outside and for maybe the first time that I can remember, I have been really thinking of people who do not have a warm place to be. Oh, I have prayed for them when someone mentioned it, but this time it seems it is God who put them on my heart. It changes things when God changes the way we look at things.

I mean there are things that are right in front of us and we still miss them. This thing of putting the interests of others in first place takes some effort.

I recently read of a young man who was an heir of a very rich family and decided to live a life of giving himself as well as his money to help the poorest of the poor. It is one thing when you have a lot to give a little to make yourself feel better, but this was beyond that.  Of course, everyone thought he was crazy, but it made him very happy.

So, I ask myself, what makes me happy? Honestly, a lot of things make me happy. It actually gives me great joy to overcome my own shortcomings. I mean when I notice that I am selfish, or irritable, or judging, and I correct it. I really like that. It is like if I thinking selfishly and get extravagant on purpose to overcome it.

Sometimes the only thing that will really bring out the love of God in us is a good soak in that love. If we do not bother to love intentionally, we can get by with shallow love. We can convince ourselves that we are ok as long as we can point out someone who is worse than us.

That is how people think they are living ok without God. At least that was what I did. I did enough to think I was good as most, but nothing is really good without God. When we come to the place where we need something more, that is when we discover that God is the more we need. Once we have soaked in His love we need a place to pour that love out and we begin to think of others in a whole new way. In order to be complete we need to pour it out to others.