I used to play Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic, and Pokemon
All these trading card games… all stupid, and all very expensive. It got me to do things like take money from my mom’s purse. Yea, I was a super bad kid.
The point of trading was to get something you needed in exchange for something they needed. I didn’t trade very much because I didn’t have anything anyone needed, I was always the one mooching trying to get something for nothing,
Not so in God.
No my friends, mooching is not allowed… however we end up being well taken care of in Christ anyways. The problem is, the habits that we develop over the years being in our sinful doesn’t bode well for us in the Kingdom!
We are by our human self-dependent, self-reliant, self-aligned, self- this, self- that. It is our intrinsic nature that gets us in trouble and doesn’t allow us to be entering into the peace that a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus bring (Titus 3:3).
Or in the other extreme, we are ALWAYS asking others for everything, never doing anything for yourself. (Prov 15:19) Not even looking to stand on your own two feet. This doesn’t bode well for a relationship either, especially with God (Matthew 23:4). A relationship means you help each other carry each other’s weight… but at the end of the day, “…every man shall bear his own burden” (Gal. 6:5).
Our stubbornness will be our undoing, and everyone is guilty of it at times. However, maturity is recognizing…
THE SOULTION: Almost as if God is proposing a trade.
Your peace for mine (John 14:27), Your love for mine (John 13:35, Mark 12:28), Your will for mine (Romans 12:1-2, Eph. 1:15), Your mind for mine (Phil. 2:5, Eph. 4:22-24).
Your opinions for my truth.
This is not without effort, hence the no mooching allowed bit. However, when we realize that Christ died and rose so he could raise YOUR DEAD SELF out that grave called the mind of the flesh… and we put his word in our hearts that we might not sin against him, (Ps. 119:11), it is then we find peace. Then we find purpose.
Then we find him.
Jesus, Leland, and Reason 