I've noticed something. When I'm struggling hard to accomplish something, there's a part of me that really longs for the job to be easier. I tend to push back and fight against something that seems so very hard--that is, until someone tells me it's normal for it to be that exhausting, to have to work so hard at it. And then, it's as if a great deal of the weight is somehow lifted, though it really is just as heavy as it ever was. Somehow, just knowing it's okay to pour everything I have into something makes it easier to do.
Our culture tends to encourage us to look for the easiest way around, or out of, any challenge. You know, "You deserve a break." Yet we know in our hearts that anything truly worth doing will take a tremendous investment.
Why is mothering so exhausting? Why does discipling our children require so much effort? Why does compassion have to require so much of us?
There's something about being spent for somebody else's welfare that brings a satisfaction unequal to any other. And it's not just somebody off the street saying so. Our dear Savior was willing to take the most costly route to our rescue. "You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold. . . but with precious blood, . . .the blood of Christ." (I Peter 1:18-19)
Yes, my heart says, but He was God; He had the strength to do it. . .
But then I look further into the testimonies of the saints, and I see what God did through an ordinary man who visited Thessalonica. "We proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives because you had become very dear to us." (I Thessalonians 2:7-8)
And when he was worried that they might have fallen prey to temptation, the good news of their faith and love was his comfort, as he says, "Now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord." (I Thessalonians 3:8) He didn't have adequate words to thank God enough for the joy he experienced on their account, they whom he described as his glory, hope, joy and crown of exultation. Really living, for him, was all about their success.
This life poured out on behalf of others was no drudgery, but he rejoiced to do it. "Even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all." And he called others to join in this life of being spent for others. "And you, too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me." (Philippians 2:17-18)
This man, who sang in prison and who called others to rejoice, in letters he wrote from prison, found his joy in being poured out for others. "I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. . ." (II Corinthians 12:15) Wow!
As did his Lord before him.
". . . Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:2-3)
We start with opening our eyes, and then our hearts, to the needs around us. Then, and only then, is the overwhelming and paradoxical joy of being spent and expended for someone else even a possibility.
If we never knew hunger or thirst, we'd never know the joy of having it satisfied. If we were never cold, we'd never know the comfort of warmth. If we never were sad, we'd never understand the soaring heights of joy. And if we never let ourselves be expended for someone else's need, we'd never know the incomparable joy of being a part of meeting that need as the hands and feet of Jesus.
So I've stopped asking why it has to be hard. I've stopped fighting against being poured out. I'm resting in the truths I've found in His Word. It's okay, even right, to spend and be expended for somebody else's soul. It's what we were made for.
But that's not all. It gets way better than that!
Even more refreshing to my soul is this: No matter how much we are poured out, we can't ever be run dry. Why? Because it isn't our strength, our love, or our anything, after all. It's His.
His life is indestructible. (Hebrews 7:16)
His compassions are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:23)
His lovingkindness is everlasting. (Psalm 118:1)
He never becomes weary or tired. (Isaiah 40:28)
As we are spent, He fills us up. When we are weak, His power is strong in us. (See II Corinthians 12:7-10) There's no exhausting our supply, because His inexhaustible supply is what He pours right through us! "Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return." (Luke 6:38)
It's not up to us to drum all this up. It is the Lord who will cause us to increase and abound--as in "to be alive with, abundant, and overflow"--in love. (See I Thessalonians 3:12)
Oh, let's not hold back from seeing, feeling or giving! And then--let's look forward to not being able to hold back the joy!
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know. . . what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. . . . Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 1:18-19; 3:20-21)
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