I keep thinking of what Jesus said to the disciples: " Love others as I have loved you"
As I meditate on this , I realized that the LOVE He is talking about is a love in which one where you must lay aside a fleshly thing called "personal rights". You know "Personal Rights"! The list of what one is entitled to as a human being and make sure that your comfort zone is always in tact. Those wonderful self indulging rights where you always get what you expect from others and allows you to demand your own way. These "rights" even allow you to feel offended and carry a grudge when wronged or preceived wrong occurs.
When Jesus said to love as He has loved, He issued a challenge to set aside these rights and to follow His example. Jesus set aside His "rights" when He came and dwelled among us. He had the right to wear the crown and robes of royality, yet He wore the clothes of a carpenter. He had the right to have people serve Him and wait upon Him,yet it was He who served others. He did good to all,yet He was despised and beaten. He was sinless and yet He bore the sins of all mankind.
I think on this whenever I start to feel that I have not received my "share of the pie" or that I have been wronged in some way. Then I feel ashamed that I have not surrended my "personal rights", but instead held tighly to my dear old flesh. Often I struggle in this area. Struggle with the idea that by surrendering these "rights", I am surrendering control of my life. I am giving up the right to be offended. I am giving up the right to hold a grudge when someone hurts me. I giving up the right to have life be all about ME!
But by surrendering, I am gaining the right to let forgiveness and mercy rule my relationships. I am gaining the right to love as God as loved me: unconditionally. I am gaining the right for life to be about others and not focused on me. My "tent" is greatly enlarged and joyous blessings are multiplied.
I pray that everday, I find myself surrending my "personal bill of rights" that I might gain what God has planned for me.
2 comments:
you mean personal rights like, oh say....MOTHER'S DAY!!! hehe :) your right though.ember2
This si such a great reminder! It also brought to mind video of a sermon by Loren Cunningham we watched in NATS on giving up your rights - I think I should go back and watch it again :)
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