Live Move Love

God wants to fill you with His Spirit so His love flows through you. In all things, you are a steward of what God places in your hands.

“David did not take the number of the men twenty years old or less, because the LORD had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars in the sky. Azmaveth son of Adiel was in charge of the royal storehouses…Ezri son of Kelub was in charge of the workers…Shimei the Ramathite was in charge of the vineyards…Joash was in charge of the supplies of olive oil. Shitrai the Sharonite was in charge of the herds grazing in Sharon…Jaziz the Hagrite was in charge of the flocks. All these were the officials in charge of King David’s property.” 1 Chronicles 27:23-33

A story could be written about each of the people. You could look at it through the lens of what life would be like as a farmer, shepherd, soldier, or servant. Through the eyes of each person, you could get a lens into what life was like doing what they did. Each of us surely has work to do and a way we can find meaning by how we use what we are given.

The bigger picture in this passage is about stewardship. Everything belonged to the king. Nothing was owned by the people. They were caretakers of what the king asked them to oversee. This is a very different way of looking at life. Our world tends to focus on what we can accumulate for ourselves rather than what we steward that God has placed in our hands. What do you really own? What will go with you when you take your last breath? Is there anything really yours?

“Praise awaits you, our God, in Zion; to you our vows will be fulfilled. You who answer prayer, to you all people will come. When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions. Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple. You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth…The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy. You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain” Psalms 65:1-9

There are many things that can fill our minds. We can focus on what we have or what we do not have. We can think about where we have done good and where we have caused harm. We can think about what other people have said or done. Whatever you think about impacts your heart. Whatever you read, listen to, watch, or pursue will get into you.

David was filled with awe and appreciation. He was grateful that God had set him free and forgiven his sins. He was grateful for the abundance of his life, not just materially, but spiritually and emotionally. As he looked around the world, David did not think about what he did not have, but how he could use what God had given him to do what was right. His heart was to align with God’s heart.

When was the last time you experienced awe? What was the impact on your soul? For some, it can be standing beside the ocean; for others, it can be time spent in the wilderness. For each of us, it happens when we look beyond ourselves and see how great God and all His creation are. Awe changes how we react. Awe changes how we talk. Awe changes how we think. Awe moves us. What could help you experience the awe of God so you can see that everything ultimately is a gift from God?

“Does not wisdom call out? Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right. My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness. Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her. To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full. Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind…my children, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For those who find me find life and receive favor from the LORD.” Proverbs 8:1-35

Jesus said it is better that He left because we would receive the Holy Spirit. Proverbs eight describes the ways of the Spirit. The wisdom of the Spirit. God wants you to be filled with the Spirit. In our lives, we will have a choice. Will we pursue being filled by the flesh or filled by the Spirit? What are you full of today?

The Spirit calls out. The Spirit warns against pride, arrogance, and wickedness. The Spirit tells us to seek wisdom instead of wealth. The Spirit promises that those who seek find. God wants you to receive the best He has for you, but you have to want the inheritance that belongs to you as His child. He invites us to actively seek, listen, and see that He is everywhere and has given us everything we have ever received. Is that how you see your resources? Is that how you see life? Culture says you will never have enough. Wisdom invites us to gratefully consider how we will use what God has given us.

How do you see God? How do you think He sees you? Wisdom says that God delights in you. Consider that for a moment. He did not merely make you to barely get by, nor does He grudgingly forgive sin. It was said that for the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. It delights God to draw close to you and for you to draw close to Him because of who you are. This truth should change how we live. God wants you to know what it means to live the kingdom life and live in a way that is always connected to Him. The question is whether you want what He is offering.

“We have heard of Moab’s pride— how great is her arrogance!— of her insolence, her pride, her conceit and the haughtiness of her heart. I know her insolence but it is futile,” declares the LORD, “and her boasts accomplish nothing. Therefore I wail over Moab, for all Moab I cry out, I moan…Joy and gladness are gone from the orchards and fields of Moab. I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses; no one treads them with shouts of joy. Although there are shouts, they are not shouts of joy…““So my heart laments for Moab like the music of a pipe; it laments like a pipe for the people of Kir Hareseth. The wealth they acquired is gone…Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in days to come,” declares the LORD. Here ends the judgment on Moab.” Jeremiah 48:29-47

Jeremiah shared the word of the Lord that disaster had come upon the people of Moab. It said that because of her pride and arrogance, she was destroyed. The Lord gives each of us what we need. Sometimes what we need is correction and destruction. This may seem like a hard truth, but continuing on a path of corruption does not draw one back to Christ.

The more important message is what lies in the middle of these verses. The text said that the Lord mourns and laments for the people. God can hold a person accountable and never lose the fullness of His affection for them. God does not delight in bringing disaster. Discipline does not mean He stops delighting in us. God’s heart has always been and will always be redemption. Bringing His children back. Turning people from darkness or doing their own thing so they can walk in the blessing of dwelling with Him.

Will we learn from the days of loss of Moab? Can we turn from pride and arrogance before they ruin relationships with others or cause harm to ourselves, like wisdom warned in Proverbs 8? Each of us has a natural inclination to want things our way. Wisdom calls out. Wisdom tells us that it is only as we align our lives with God that the love of God flows freely in and through our hearts.

“As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue…explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead…But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob…Paul…in Athens was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols…All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas…People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship…God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being…he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:2-31

Paul entered the city of Athens and found that it was full of idols and idle talk. What do you think Paul would find if he entered our cities? Would it be any different? Is our world not full of idols that people worship? Wherever you spend your resources, your time, your talent, or your treasure is where or what you will worship. What do yours say about you?

God wants to change the way we see everything. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being. God wants us to see that everything is a gift from Him and there is never a time that He is absent. He is near and can be found. He wants you to be aware and invite Him into everything you do.

What are you full of today? The world is constantly trying to fill us with something. Endless desire, constant fear, unhealthy comparison, selfish ambition, unholy anger, empty entertainment, meaningless opinions, and white noise all compete for our attention. But God offers something infinitely better. He wants to fill us with His Spirit until His presence changes the way we see everything. He wants us to discover the life of delight and dependence.

When we are filled with Him, filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and Truth, filled with His love, what we have becomes something to steward rather than something to possess. We see our very lives as a gift. Our work becomes worship because we see our careers as something we steward using the strengths we have been given. Our relationships become opportunities to glorify God and be glad as we steward His love. Our resources become tools we can use to buy what we need and build up His kingdom. In Him we live, move, and are.

Maybe the question is not whether God has given you enough, but what you are doing with what He has already placed in your hands. Your time. Your relationships. Your abilities. Your finances. Your words. Your influence. Like we saw in Chronicles and Psalms, it all belongs to the King. Is there anywhere pride has turned your thinking from stewardship to selfishness? God wants all to repent. All to turn from wrong thinking. Nothing is separate, and we do not need to live with a scarcity mindset. Seek first the King and His Kingdom, and everything else will come as you align your life with Him.

Many people spend their whole lives searching. Like the Athenians, they look in all the wrong places. You will never find what you were made to do if you do not seek the Maker of all things. You do not have to go somewhere distant to find God. He is near. Paul said He is not far from any one of us. He is here. Right now, in this moment. God, who made all things, is bigger than big, but equally true is that He is closer than close.

He delights in you and invites you to live every moment expectantly aware of His presence, moving in the authority you have been given. The same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead lives in you. So change the way you have been thinking. Open your hands, open your eyes, and open your heart. Let awe be what fills you. Let wisdom be what guides you. Let gratitude never leave you. Let love and faithfulness be what flows through you as you are filled with the Spirit within you.