Pondering My Treasures… The Greatest of These is Love!

December 20, 2017 niroja Recent Blogs, Uncategorized

Luke 2:19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

#MeToo… This Mary has been PONDERING the treasure chest of my heart.

From joy, to ho-hum, to ok – NO!, my days have been a mess of feelings. FEELINGS… you know those things that have you laughing and dancing one minute and in the fetal position the next. The pendulum swinging (like pendulums do) from pure bliss to deepest of grief.

At the beginning of the week (that would be Sunday to those of us who try to honor the Sabbath – day 7 – on Saturday), I understood and delighted in the “wrestling” match Abba was taking me through. With great wisdom, I sat at His feet and PONDERED. I TREASURED the training! But on Monday… I was on overload, heading toward burnout. With a great deal of SELF-PITY, I threw the “turn out the lights the party is over” switch. I did what all NORMAL children do when they’ve over dosed on sugar! I threw a hissy fit for God’s eyes only.

“Daddy, don’t you care that I’m upset? Don’t you see I NEED You to FIX those who are causing me great distress? I know, I KNOW, feelings are childish and not at all acceptable for MATURE people! But… Have YOU no feelings… is everything just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?”

Somewhere along my way, I got the idea that God – even PAPA GOD – was a single layer of personality. All work and no play… nothing ever good enough… untouched by our human ever-changing dramatic repertoire. In fact, before I allowed God’s pursuit of me to change me, while I was His enemy, I could not fathom EVER giving my heart to a Judging Father who could not/would not be satisfied!

Only through Jesus (If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” John 14:7) could I meet and greet and fall in love with DADDY!

To this day, I fight the lies that are stored in my OLD natural heart. I have knock down, drag out arguments with myself when circumstances bring out my tendency to JUDGE GOD based solely upon how I “feel” about my day (and each and every event of said day). Love means… never allowing me to suffer nor live with unmet desires. Classic case of Transference! Judging Father God by MY STANDARD of insatiable demands!

1 Corinthians 13:13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

As I was PONDERING this week, I realized that I had set aside one important truth. Well, maybe two… OBSERVE and REMEMBER. You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes (these ways of the One who brought you out). (Deuteronomy 16:12)

But to Mary, the mother of Jesus, the person in the above Scripture, observing and remembering isn’t JUST a task. Not just a feeling either. Observing and remembering – the foundation of Faith Hope and Love – is the FULL ON, HITCH YOUR WAGON to this star, SELLING ALL having found one pearl of great value (Matthew 13:46) and CHOOSING God and His Way, Truth and Life!

So, when Mary treasured all these things, she was FULLY present and sold out. Task and feelings, in perfect harmony, singing… “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2:14)

The “wrestling match” God GIFTED me with, was training in the same treasure hunting/storage. FYI… our version of wrestling is fighting to WIN. God’s version is being fully invested (fully trained in and practicing), fully present and fully participating in LOVE TRAINING!

Unlike our version, which seems to be mostly feelings of aggressive fighting for the right to rule, God’s version IS complete, perfect and unconditional love.

I can have Faith that God is perfect in every way. I can have Hope that He fulfills His word. But I cannot claim Love (the greatest of these) if I reject that He cares for me in every moment, every event, every circumstance of my life.

Love isn’t just the words we say (1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal). Love isn’t should’ve, would’ve, could’ve, but never does (1 John 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love). Love is REAL LIFE (Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope)!

In my pondering this week, I realized…

There is love in the eyes and arms of those who receive my hugs and give them right back (remember when the babies wanted to snuggle so close they would’ve crawled into your skin if they could’ve). Do I love God like the babies loved me?

There is love in standing in the gap when my gifted friends and family are a little low on independent living (remember when you stood next to those who had a heavy load of life and they leaned just a little and gave you the honor of sharing the fragile moment). Do I lean in when God is always next to me?

There is love in sharing the intimacy of laughter… of tears… of whispering… of silence (remember when you gathered together in true fellowship, hiding nothing). Do I stand before my Daddy, wanting with all my heart to KNOW Him and BE KNOWN by Him?

Deuteronomy 6:4 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. JUST LIKE HE LOVES US!!!!!

In the pondering of all the treasures I have stored in my heart, love is the greatest gift of all. And God… is The Author – The Perfecter – The Giver of all that is, was, or will be love. Without God, His creature would never have known love, nor would we have been able to invent it ourselves. He might have given us the “instinct” to do necessary task like the other creatures, which certainly is a loving thing to give and a loving thing to receive. But without giving us His image, the ability/nature to comprehend and choose the action and direction of our life, we would neither know nor care to know “The Reason for the Season”.

We are created in His image… He IS love!

Needless to say I REPENT and I …

Turn my eyes upon Jesus.

I look full in His wonderful face.

And the things of this earth, grow strangely dim –

in the light of His glory and grace!

THIS Mary now treasures all these things, pondering them in her heart.

No more one-dimensional view of the Love of God for me!

John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

God’s choice to LOVE and feelings of LOVE and tasks of LOVE, unite in perfect unity to explode in SALVATION… ours and our world’s!

**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.