Your Turn
Jesus did not love His life more than He loved you. All of His days were in the fulfillment of the purposes of God to pursue you. Even His death was for you.
If you know someone, have known someone, or maybe just heard about Big Mama. That woman was a machine! She made everything better. Wherever she was, it was home for all. Even if you weren’t family, she made you feel like family around her. Watching her in action (she was always in action), she would make sure everyone was well fed before eating (if she would eat). She was never worried about whether there would be some leftover when she got ready to eat. She was happiest knowing that everybody else enjoyed themselves and what she prepared. Comfort and acceptance seemed to be two of the strongest pillars in her home. Easily identified as love, you would watch her up until it was time to eat, or you would go off and do your own thing because you could trust that she was most certainly going to do her thing and call you when finished. One thing that was often said about her or thought about her is, Does she ever sit down?
Jesus, while on earth as a man in constant pursuit of you, seemed never to rest. One would have thought, does He ever get tired? Multitudes gathered around Him constantly, people endlessly pulling on Him needing Him to do something for them; Being watched and followed most of the time. However, there was one day recorded where He slept. On the boat with His disciples amid a raging storm (See Matt. 8:23-27). Don’t you hate having to wake a person up whom rarely or barely takes time to rest? You almost feel guilty even in the case of an emergency, more than anyone they deserve to rest.
All Jesus did was for you in fulfillment of the will of the Father. HE EVEN GOT UP FOR YOU! And He did finally sit down as well, in no better seat than at the right hand of the Father in glory.
When we think about Big Mama or Auntie or whoever “she” was; she served so selflessly for such long stints of time that if you ever watched her the entire time she served, you then felt the urge to become the liaison between her and the other folks in her home. You want to know what you can do to assist so that everyone gets what they need and so that she can get off her feet. You may even over-insert yourself as to her care: You, making sure that she has been eating properly, if there is a discomfort you can alleviate with a massage or a room temperature you can change with a fan, or if there is a spice that she is missing or mail that needs getting, you are more than ready to move.
Our reciprocation for the service rendered on our behalf ought to be even more for Jesus. Our service toward others (including Big Mama) is for the purpose that God be glorified. That people would see Him and want Him. He meets our needs so well, His care of you matchless (unable to be matched even if someone else were to try and care for you), and He does it graciously, not resentfully, even though He knows better than you do how much you don’t deserve the level of love that you are getting. You then get a small glimpse of your insufficiency, or your wretchedness, compared to His worthiness, and you lose the desire to stay seated, and thrusting yourself to your feet, you seek to help. While you may care about Him, or at least recognize His virtue, deep down aid you bring is only to cover up what you are seeing in yourself. You begin to realize that the first thing you need from Him is not His handouts (blessings) or even healing, but rather His mercy. And once you realize that your posture changes, no longer to quickly only temporarily assist Him, but to your knees, you fall at His feet to receive of Him once more mercy and grace, forgiveness and acceptance.
Before you were satisfied comfortably seated in His presence and eating what He served up in word and deed, but now by the indwelling and infilling of the Holy Spirit, you have been commissioned to work.
Let God Be True & Question You!
