December 03
Helping People Get Better
I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!
Psalm 119:32 (ESV)
… count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:4-5 (ESV)
… who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
Psalm 103:5 (ESV)
Pastor Erwin McManus worked for years with the inner-city poor. His desire to see people changed and transformed met with mixed results.
As one who reached out in love over and over again, he realized it wasn’t information alone that helped people make the leap. People without deep truth were somehow touched and completely transformed while many who had tons of truth, who received a wealth of God’s word, didn’t change at all. Many were stuck in their dysfunctional selfishness.
Erwin McManus finally identified the thing that helped people make the jump to real, life-giving experiences. It was love, but it wasn’t just love received from others, and it wasn’t even receiving God’s love. The leap was made, the super-charged, accelerated transformation process kicked in, when these individuals gave love to others. In doing kind acts, in loving someone else, in giving love away they found healing and restoration and, ultimately … satisfaction.
This truth is simple yet profound. Spiritual health and deep satisfaction come when we move from an emphasis on self to one of servanthood, from being someone who shudders at what God might ask of them to someone who embraces serving. The truth is: we can be like Christ, like God—no, not omniscient, not sovereign, and not omnipotent. We can be like God in other ways—in love, in kindness, in servanthood. Just as Jesus gave Himself, we can give ourselves and find the life He has for us—the life of joy.
Father, energize us for service, transform our hearts to impact others, to experience Your joy. Amen.
Helping People Get Better
I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!
Psalm 119:32 (ESV)
… count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:4-5 (ESV)
… who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
Psalm 103:5 (ESV)
Pastor Erwin McManus worked for years with the inner-city poor. His desire to see people changed and transformed met with mixed results.
As one who reached out in love over and over again, he realized it wasn’t information alone that helped people make the leap. People without deep truth were somehow touched and completely transformed while many who had tons of truth, who received a wealth of God’s word, didn’t change at all. Many were stuck in their dysfunctional selfishness.
Erwin McManus finally identified the thing that helped people make the jump to real, life-giving experiences. It was love, but it wasn’t just love received from others, and it wasn’t even receiving God’s love. The leap was made, the super-charged, accelerated transformation process kicked in, when these individuals gave love to others. In doing kind acts, in loving someone else, in giving love away they found healing and restoration and, ultimately … satisfaction.
This truth is simple yet profound. Spiritual health and deep satisfaction come when we move from an emphasis on self to one of servanthood, from being someone who shudders at what God might ask of them to someone who embraces serving. The truth is: we can be like Christ, like God—no, not omniscient, not sovereign, and not omnipotent. We can be like God in other ways—in love, in kindness, in servanthood. Just as Jesus gave Himself, we can give ourselves and find the life He has for us—the life of joy.
Father, energize us for service, transform our hearts to impact others, to experience Your joy. Amen.
posted by Craig Soderquist at 11:09 AM
