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Reciprocity Does Not Belong Here

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Pay it forward. We’ve all heard this term and are familiar with the concept. You are helped in some way and, in turn, help someone else. Simple enough, right? The idea is not one of reciprocity, but one of a chain reaction – like the “wave” in the stands at a sporting event. One action sets off a sequence of actions.

God gave us the greatest gift of all time – our redemption – and all He asked in return is for us to pay His love forward. There is no check-off list of actions that we need to complete. There is no repayment schedule. To show God’s love to others is our end of the deal.

And do you know what the funny thing is about doing for others? It takes your focus off of you. It shifts your thought process from an inward one to an outward one. And as Martha Stewart would say – this, my friends, is a good thing.

When my dad moved to heaven a few years ago, my mama lost her husband of 53 years – her best friend since she was 14 – after a shocking diagnosis and an even more shockingly short illness. At that point, she had options. She could sit around and wait life out until she joined him in heaven. She could become bitter and resentful – of God, of others who still had what she’d lost, of other people’s happiness. But she did what she’d been doing for most of her life – taking the love that God had shown her and showering it upon others. During her time amidst deep grief, she chose to focus outward and serve others.

We told her to take a break, that it was okay to do less volunteering at church or at the local mission for a while. We told her everyone would understand that she needed time. But she set us straight pretty quickly about the fact that this was what she wanted to do – that glorifying God by serving others and sharing His love with them was the least she could do after all He’d done for her.

Romans 13:8 tells us, “If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.”

We have a whole, big world around us in which to practice this concept each and every day. Pay God’s love forward, folks.

Posted by Holly Anderson with

Owe Your Love

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As a young adult, just heading to college, I remember some advice my dad gave me; “Don’t get a credit card. You’ll never get out of it.” I didn’t asked him much about this advice or rather, warning, but I had a feeling he knew a thing or two about this.

I wish I could say I listened. Instead I made plans with new found friends to head to Florida for Spring Break. My tax refund check didn’t come soon enough, so I filled out the easy application that magically appeared in my dorm mailbox and drove off to Florida with a piece of plastic in my pocket worth $3000.

I wish I could say I’ve never had any debt, especially from a high interest credit card, but I have. And at times, I’ve felt like I could drown from the weight of it.

But that really isn’t the worst of it. My relationship with debt was distracting me from the rich relationship I could have been having with my heavenly Father. It was keeping me strapped to a monthly payment I wanted to give away to someone in need. I was kept from loving people the way I wanted to and reflecting the generous love I’ve received from God through his gift of Jesus Christ.

Paul instructs in Romans 13:8 to, “Owe nothing to anyone – except for your obligation to love one another.” And in my pursuit to love others in this life, in the same generous and lavish way God loves me, I fulfill God’s law to love Him and love others.

Being free from owing someone something other than my love for them frees me to love them deeply, to really invest in them and not just with money, but with my time, my attention, with the eternal part of me that will give the opportunity to share the Good News of Christ. If I’m busy paying off debt or worried about matching someone’s generosity, that becomes my focus, that becomes what I think about, that becomes the biggest part of me. It is a trap, a prison, a lonely place that does not align with a free and full life that God has dreamed for me.

Are you caught up in what you owe men? Consider and pray how to be rid of this and be free to spend yourself in the lives of people, loving them out of obligation to the One who showed us what love is.

Posted by Janna Lynas with

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