by Joyce Meyer
Had she not made the sacrifice, God would have found someone else, but saving her people was her destiny. It was her purpose in life. Don’t miss your purpose in life just because you don’t want God to interrupt your plans.
The list of people who entered into sacrificial obedience could go on and on. The Bible calls them men “of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb. 11:38).
These people we read about were inconvenienced so that someone else’s life could be easier. Jesus died so we could have life and have it abundantly. Soldiers die so that civilians can remain safe at home. Fathers go to work so their families can have nice lives and mothers go through the pain of childbirth to bring another life into the world. It seems quite obvious that someone usually has to experience pain or inconvenience for anyone to gain anything.
This chapter is very important because if being part of a Love Revolution is merely an idea that gives you a nice feeling, you will change your mind about being part of it when you realize that you will need to do some things you would rather not do in order to walk in love. You may have to put up with someone you would rather get away from because love bears with the failings and weaknesses of others. You might have to stay in a place that is not much fun simply because you are the only light in the darkness. You might have to leave a place because the surroundings are tempting you to sin. Actually, Abraham was living in the midst of idol worshippers including his family, so it is no wonder God asked him to get away from the place and the people. Sometimes God must separate us from what we are familiar with in order to show us what He wants us to see.
If you will make the decision that you don’t mind inconvenience or interruption, then God can use you. You can make a difference in the world. But if you remain addicted to your own comfort, God will have to pass you by for someone with a stronger stomach for the hard things in life.
If you will make the decision that you don’t mind inconvenience or interruption, then God can use you.
Sodom and Gomorrah
You have probably heard of Sodom and Gomorrah and the terrible wickedness in those cities. But what did they actually do that was so displeasing to God? We often have the idea that their sexual perversion finally put God over the edge and caused Him to destroy them, but it was actually quite a different situation that caused Him to act against them. I was shocked when I saw the truth behind their destruction. I discovered it while searching Scriptures about the need to feed the poor. “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, overabundance of food, prosperous ease, and idleness were hers and her daughters’; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy. And they were haughty and committed abominable offenses before Me; therefore I removed them when I saw it and I saw fit” (Ezek. 16:49–50, emphasis mine).
The problem with Sodom and Gomorrah was that they had too much and were not sharing it with those in need. They were idle and lived excessively convenient lifestyles, which led them to commit abominable acts. We see clearly from this that idleness and too much convenience is not good for us and leads us into more and more trouble. Failing to share what we do have with those who have less than we do is not good for us and is actually dangerous because this selfish type of lifestyle opens the door for evil to progress. Not only are these things not good for us, but they are offensive to God. He expects us to be channels for Him to flow through, not reservoirs that hold everything we have for ourselves.
We appreciate all the conveniences that are available to us today, but in some ways I think Satan is using them to destroy any willingness to be inconvenienced in order to obey God or help others in need. We have become addicted to ease and we need to be very careful. Like most people, I like nice, comfortable things. I like convenience, but I have also made an effort not to complain when I don’t have things the way I want them. I also realize that inconvenience is almost always part of helping others and I know I am called by God to help people and do so with a good attitude.
I don’t like to be interrupted while I am writing. It is very inconvenient for me if I am interrupted because then I have to work to get back in the flow of what I was working on. Just a few moments ago I was tested. My phone rang and I saw it was a woman that I knew would need me to listen to her for probably quite some time about her troubled marriage. I didn’t necessarily want to stop but I felt that I should because this particular woman is a well-known person who has nobody she can trust to talk to. Just because a person is well known to the world does not mean they are not lonely. She is a lonely, internationally known woman with a problem and God wanted me to interrupt my writing on love to actually practice it!! Imagine that… God wants us to practice what we say we believe.
CHAPTER 5
Love Finds a Way
Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.
Og Mandino
Desire is a powerful motivator. I have finally faced the truth that if I genuinely want to do something, I will find a way to do it. People frequently ask me how I do everything I do, and I simply say, “Because I want to.” I realize that God has given me grace and put desires in my heart, but it is the fact that I want to do certain things that motivates me to do them. I want to do what God wants me to do; I want to help people and I want to fulfill my destiny, or as the apostle Paul said, “I want to finish my race.”
You might ask, “What if I don’t have that desire?” You obviously do have a desire to do God’s will or you would have put this book down after you read the first chapter. If you have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, then you have a desire to do good because He has given you His heart and Spirit. Ezekiel 11:19 promises this: “And I will give them one heart [a new heart] and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony [unnaturally hardened] heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh [sensitive and responsive to the touch of their God].” We may become lazy, passive, or selfish and need to deal with those issues at times, but as believers it is impossible to have the heart of God and not want to obey Him and help people.
I guess the question is: How much do you want it? Do you want to do His will more than you want to do your will? Do you want it enough to sacrifice others things to have it?
I recently had a young man tell me how unhappy he was. He went on to tell me that he knew God was calling him to come to a higher place but he felt that he was not willing to make the sacrifice needed. I felt sad for him because I don’t want him to miss the joy that is on the other side of sacrifice. I pray he will change his mind.
If we really want to do something, we’ll find a way to do it. Unless we admit this, we will spend our lives deceived by our own excuses about why we cannot do things. Excuses are very dangerous, and I believe they are one of the main reasons we don’t make the progress we desire. Perhaps you would like to exercise, but you make an excuse about why you can’t. Maybe you want to spend more time with your family, but you have an excuse about why you just can’t. You might realize you need to give more of yourself to help others and you may want to do it, but there are always reasons (excuses) why you don’t actually do it. Satan is the one who gives us excuses; until we realize that excuses are keeping us deceived and disobedient, we will be stuck in joyless, fruitless living.
A Good Neighbor
Jesus said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). He went on to say to the lawyer to whom He was speaking that if he would do so, he would live, which meant he would enjoy active, blessed, endless life in the kingdom of God. Wanting to acquit himself of any reproach, the lawyer said, “And who is my neighbor?” He wanted to know exactly who these people were that he was supposed to be showing love to, and Jesus responded by telling him a story.
A man who was traveling was attacked by robbers who took his belongings and beat him, then left him half dead, lying on the side of the road. Alon
g came a priest (a religious man) who saw the man needing help and he passed by on the other side of the road. I don’t know if he was already on the other side of the road or if he crossed the road so the injured man could not even see him and perhaps ask for help, but he made sure he did not have to walk by the hurting man. Then another religious man, a Levite, came along who also passed by on the other side of the road. Perhaps these religious men were hurrying to get to church and had no time to actually do what the church should have been teaching them to do. Religious people often respond to need with religious words but with no offer of practical help. I believe this is one of biggest problems we have today in Christianity. We are proud of what we supposedly “know,” but in many cases we are not doing much with the knowledge we have. We talk a lot, but we don’t always show people what they need to see—and that is love in action.
After these two religious men passed by the man who desperately needed help, a Samaritan man, not a particularly religious man, traveled the road. When he noticed the needy man he was moved with pity and sympathy and went to him and dressed his wounds. After that, he put him on his own horse and took him to a local inn and gave the innkeeper two days’ wages and told him to take care of the man until he returned, at which time he would pay him for additional expenses. Jesus then asked the lawyer which of the three men proved himself to be a neighbor (see Luke 10:27–37).
Several aspects of this story catch my attention. First, as I’ve already mentioned, the religious men did nothing. We must refuse to do nothing! Even if what we can do is small, we absolutely must find a way to do something when it comes to meeting the needs God makes us aware of. I admit there are times when all we can do is pray or perhaps offer some verbal encouragement, but we should at least be aggressive enough to look for a way to help. We should at least think about it and not just assume we can do nothing or, even worse, find an excuse to do nothing simply because we don’t want to be bothered.
The next thing that strikes me in this story is that the Samaritan went to quite a bit of trouble to help the man. I imagine that delayed his journey significantly. He was obviously going somewhere he needed to go because he left the injured man long enough to go take care of his business before he returned. He made an investment of time and money, and he was willing to be inconvenienced in order to take care of someone in need.
I also see that the Samaritan did not let an emergency need distract him from his original purpose. This is also important because sometimes people are so driven by the emotions of compassion that they cannot stay focused on their goals long enough to accomplish them. Our daughter Sandra loves, loves, loves to help people and that is a good thing, but just yesterday she called and asked me to pray for her to have balance and clarity about whom to help and to what degree. She has twin daughters to care for, she teaches a parenting class at her church, and she also has some other commitments she feels she needs to be faithful to and yet she keeps hearing about needs and always wants to help! Quite often she gets involved in helping without even thinking through what it will mean or how she can help without ignoring her other priorities. The result is that sometimes in her good desire to help she ends up frustrated and feeling confused, which is not God’s will at all.
I encouraged Sandra to do what the Samaritan did in Jesus’ story, and I would encourage you likewise. Be willing to change your plan and be inconvenienced, and be willing to give some time and money if necessary to help meet the need. But don’t try to do everything yourself when there are others who can help too. The Samaritan enlisted the innkeeper to help him meet the need so he could remain focused on whatever it was he was on his way to do.
The devil doesn’t seem to mind which ditch we are in as long as we are not in the middle of the road. In other words, people either don’t do anything or they try to do it all and then become discouraged or eventually feel they are being taken advantage of. Every aspect of our lives requires balance, even the area of helping others. I have learned the hard way that I cannot do everything and do anything well, and this is true for all of us. But, I cannot let a fear of getting too involved keep me from being involved at all.
I also see that the Samaritan did not put limits on what he was willing to allow this need to cost him. He told the innkeeper he would give him whatever it cost to care for the injured man when he returned. Rarely do we find anyone who is willing to do whatever needs to be done.
As I said, sometimes we must place limits in order to protect our other priorities, but in this case the man apparently had plenty of money, so he had no need to put limits on it. He acted out of a generous attitude, not a fearful one. God may not ask any one of us to do everything required to solve a problem or meet a need, but He does want each of us to do what we can. And, if He should ask us to do it all then we should do it all! Giving our all is challenging and it stretches our faith to new levels but it also brings the freedom of knowing that nothing in this world has a hold on us.
I remember a time when God asked me to give everything I had saved of my personal money including all gift certificates. This new level of sacrificing all was hard because I had been saving the money a long time and had plans to go shopping at the right time. Oddly enough, the gift certificates were the most difficult. I had several very nice ones that I had received for my birthday and I enjoyed just knowing they were available should I want to use them. I was accustomed to giving, but giving all was a new level. After some time of arguing with God and making every excuse I could think of, I finally obeyed. The pain of letting go of the possessions was momentary, but the joy of obedience and the knowledge that possessions had no hold on me was everlasting.
That was the first time I was tested in that way, but it has not been the last. God chooses the time for testing and it is necessary for our benefit. It keeps us from getting too attached to things. God wants us to enjoy what He gives us, but He also wants us to remember that we are stewards, not owners. He is the Master and our job is to serve Him with joy with our whole heart and every resource we have.
Who Is My Neighbor?
Who should you help and who is your neighbor? It is whoever happens to be in your path with a need. It may be someone who needs you to listen, or perhaps someone who needs a compliment or encouragement. It could be someone who needs a little of your time or perhaps someone for whom you can meet or help meet a financial need. Maybe your neighbor is someone who feels lonely and just needs you to be friendly.
Dave recently told me that God had dealt with him about taking time to be friendly. I’ve always thought he’s very friendly, but he feels that God wants him to put even more time into it. He asks people all kinds of things about themselves to show that he cares about them as individuals. Many of the people he spends time with he does not know at all and will probably never see again. Sometimes they are elderly or people from another country who don’t speak English very well and might feel a bit out of place. He recently told me about a handicapped man others were staring at in a coffee shop. Dave took the time to talk with the gentleman, even though his handicap made understanding his speech difficult.
We often avoid people who are different than we are in some way because they make us feel uncomfortable or incapable. Perhaps we should think more about how they feel rather than doing what is convenient for us.
The list of ways we can show ourselves to be good neighbors is probably endless, but if we really want to help people and be a blessing we will find a way. Remember, indifference makes an excuse, but love finds a way.
Little Things with a Big Impact
Jesus did not waste His time, so we can assume that everything He did was very meaningful and contains a great lesson to be learned. Let’s think about the time He decided to wash His disciples’ feet (see John 13:1–17). What was that all about? He had in mind several lessons He wanted to teach the disciples, one of which was the need to serve one another. Jesus was and is the Son of God. Actually, He is God manifested in the second person of the Trinity
. So it suffices to say that He is really important and certainly would not have to wash anyone’s feet, especially not guys who were His students. But He did so because He wanted to teach them that they could be in authority and still be servants at the same time. Many today have failed to learn that important lesson.
In Jesus’ day, people’s feet were fairly dirty. People traveled on dirt roads and wore shoes that amounted to a few straps with a sole. The custom of the day was to wash the feet of guests when they entered a home, but servants typically performed that duty, not the master of the house. Jesus actually took off His garment and put on a servant’s towel. This was another gesture intended to teach a lesson. He wanted to show that we can lay aside our “positions” in life long enough to serve someone else and not be fearful of losing them.
Peter, the most vocal disciple, vehemently refused to let Jesus wash his feet, but Jesus said that if He did not wash Peter’s feet, the two of them could not be real friends. In other words, they had to be doing things for one another in order for their relationship to be healthy and strong. How many marriages could be saved or at least greatly improved if couples applied this principle?
I decided a few years ago that I was not willing to have any more one-sided relationships—relationships in which I do all the giving and the other person does all the taking. That kind of interaction is not real relationship, and it always eventually causes resentment and bitterness. Not only should we do things for each other, we actually need to do things for one another. This is part of maintaining good relationships.