The Journey: Part 5 "Sharing with God"

     Introducing this study, Chic Shaver states, “If I really believe in something, I am going to support it 100 percent. And God, I believe in You know, like I never did before! So, I want to please You and serve you, and share all I have with You.” This is in line with what the Apostle Paul, teaches in his letter the Corinthians when he writes “So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:31). My personal thoughts include these and a few others. Here I will share that believing in God and doing all things for His glory include sharing and partnering with Him as He fills us with Himself. I wish to explain how we can share with God by giving to each other.

     Giving begins with how we choose to love. In Matthew 22:36-40 we see Jesus answering a question that was intended to trick Him. However, as usual Jesus answers wisely. The text states, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." Applying Jesus’ answers teaches us that loving God requires that we love with all that makes us who and what we are.

     Along the lines of this topic we can also apply the idea of obedience to God is the best measurement of our love for one another. Consider the words found in 1 John 5:1-3 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. These words prompt a question. Why do so many wish to diminish the importance of obedience which leads to an abuse of grace? Answers are many and varied but perhaps we should consider that love, not fear of punishment or attempts to manipulate for benefit, is the motivator of obedience. In this case, we may strive to love less to love more. In John 12:24-26 Jesus states, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”.  

     Finishing on a very practical note, please consider that the ability to share is the by-product of work. Paul the Apostle makes this point very clear in Ephesians 4:28 where he writes, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need”. This may be the practical way to be fully committed to God and His work and make our work personally fulfilling. Therefore I challenge each of us to do something specific this week that obeys God for the sake of loving another and having something to share.