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Pouring Out

I have come to realize that pouring out our lives as children of God is what the journey is all about.  There’s no end to when you’re called to pour it out, to give it away, to die to yourself, to take your life and distribute it to others by putting it in God's hands.  That is what it is about.  It is not something you do one day and then its over and you’re done.  Pouring out is an everyday life calling.  If I ever come to a place in my life where I realize I’m no longer pouring out my life, then I have got to ask myself some hard questions.  I have to do this, because it is not something I just grew out of...this passion to pour out.  My circumstances are not something I have just gotten used to.  Every day is new gift from the Lord, and the blessings He gives us within each day are to be multiplied to those around us.  So, there is not a quota of “amount of life out poured" at which point we get to stop living beyond our self.  Therefore, when there is no overflow from my life, when the passion has died, I have to look first at myself to see if I set my cross down somewhere.  To see if I took my eyes off the object of my affections.  To see if somewhere along the way I developed a preoccupation for the world and its shimmering distractions.   And then, I can take those results to God and ask for a renewed passion, a new energy for this act of pouring out, a new motivation towards those around me.  I go to Him in this moment, because it is He, afterall  that I should be pouring out from the overflow of my own soul.  And when  I do, I must come with the willingness to go wherever He may lead me to retrieve it.  It may just be locked away in a place where I would least expect it, and so I trust His guidance and I trust He is sufficient, and I carry my cross wherever He leads.

Matthew 16:24: "Then Jesus told the disciples, 'If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

Romans 12:1 (MSG): "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering.  Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.

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