Page 48 - GOALS PDF
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Jesus offers us the gift of faith — even his faith, not just ours. Jesus
offers us peace — with God, that produces peace with others.
(And as a P.S. to this, we are told that knowing God’s love in us is what
eliminates fear to a large extent, and produces more faith in us. What a
good deal). Plus, I said earlier it says, “Jesus is our peace.”
And Jesus offers us GIVING: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Yet the GOSPEL talks so much about us receiving from God. Psychology
even tells us the more we give OF ourselves – and the more we OFFER
ourselves to other people, as we discussed in the section before, – the
better we feel ABOUT ourselves.
God knows that what we receive
is what we give out.
God is smart! He knows if he plants apples in us
he won’t raise pumpkins —
and if he plants love and faith and grace in us,
this won’t produce fear and anger.
He knows that giving us the gift of his gospel
makes us APPRECIATE life a lot more.
We Are Meant to be Rivers, Not Reservoirs
We are not meant to be a reservoir. Jesus calls us ‘rivers of living
water.’ We are a flow in and out of us. We’re not like a cistern.
‘The Dead Sea’ in Israel is dead because no water flows out of it. We
can’t be like this. We are meant to have a flow-through value to us. We
are not meant to hoard things of life.
I call it (1) receiving all that God offers, (2) relegating what God offers to
our own use and benefit, and then (3) releasing what we have.
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