Sacrifice, Honor, Blessing (Long Post)

Has anyone offered to send you home?
Has anyone offered to set aside time to spend time with you?
Has anyone offered to buy you a drink?
Has anyone offered his/her seat to you?

These are the things we know as, acts of kindness, or acts of love.

Firstly, dont necessarily associate 'good' things, with 'right' things.
Just because someone is nice to you,
It doesnt mean he/she genuinely did it out of love.

We must always have an open heart and strike a balance.

So how do we react when people offer to do things/spend time with us?
And we know it costs them something?

Do we 'paiseh' and say its okay, or do we accept it?
This is something a bit tough for me to blog about, and I may not necessarily be right about everything, but Ill just share from my heart, my personal convictions, these are the things that make me...me.

We always say, 'when you're happy to give, Im happy to receive'.
On the other hand, there are those who say, 'when you're happy to give, I dare not receive'.

Hmm, its up to you to decide which statement is more weird to you. :D

So...the question now is...

When someone takes that step of love toward us, and it will cost them something, do we say yes, or no?

Personally for me, if I know that if that person chooses to sacrifice his/her time for me, and the person is tired and needs to rest, Ill say, 'why not you take a rest first?'...But I dont stop there. Good social skills will complete the second half of the statement to 'balance' it out, saying, 'when ure feeling better let me know and ill be glad to hang out together with you'.

In the second part, initiative and ownership comes in. Not only concern is shown, but you take charge and you respect the intentions of the person.

Similarly, when someone offers you a seat, especially when MANHOOD is involved, say no if you feel uncomfortable, but when when the guy INSISTS, then just receive it and praise the Lord. Have an attitude, of gratitude.

A true friend will always allow the other party to exercise his/her character development.

Serving is a good attitude to have. Giving is a good attitude to have.
As a true friend, we want to see the people around us grow, and these are things they can practically live out, on a day to day basis.

When you allow a guy to exercise his manhood, not only you strengthen and encourage him to be better, you two begin to build closer relationship by giving and taking.

But of course, if you truly insists its okay, then eventually the guy has to give in. But then, what is the sin of omission? It is knowing what is right but failing to do it. What if its the guy's conviction? You just made him stumble...and the bible warns us of being stumbling blocks.

Of course to other guys, its okay, as long as you're fine with it. Thats great too.

Similarly, guys, if the sisters wanna do something for you, receive it with joy, be thankful, appreciate them. But as men, dont forget to return the favor! ;)

Every good thing comes from God.
Every blessing is from God.

One thing Ive learnt from a cute young girl from another cg, is to never reject a blessing, because if you reject a blessing, you reject God Himself. Can you imagine, I got scolded and convicted by a CHILD! It totally changed my life! haha.

Same goes with genuine love.

If a guy, does something out of love, but in his heart, he intends to make use and manipulate you, then you'll be a fool to let him do it.

But if someone is genuine and out of his/her conviction, does something out of love for you, instead of showing pity and treating serving, giving and sacrifice as something lowly and 'compromising', we should treat such, with honor and with respect.

The greatest in the Kingdom of God, are those who are the servants of all.

So treat them with honor, with respect. These are the greatest in the kingdom. People who give their lives for others.

Im sure when Jesus makes time for us, or He goes a great distance to do something for us...take for instance...dying on the cross...

Do we say to Him, 'eh, no need to die la...its okay, You should live and enjoy life, no need to worry about me.'?

Remember what happened when Peter told Jesus, after Jesus told him that He had to die a tragic death for the sins of the world? He said, 'Lord, it shall not be so!'

And what was Jesus' response?

"GET BEHIND ME SATAN!"

Wow! I mean, just...wow. Was Peter concerned for Jesus? Im sure he was. But Jesus's reaction...why? God wanted something done, but out of our own 'face', our own pride, even though what we did was a good thing, it was not a GOD thing. It was still something we wanted, not something God wanted. So you think being Jesus' disciple is easy? I mean just look at the way He disciples His disciples...

For failing to understand His parable, Jesus 'discipled' them.
"Do you have eyes that cannot see? Ears that cannot hear?", etc.
For failing to heal and deliver people, Jesus 'discipled' them.
"Oh faithless generation!", etc.

And when He disciples, its pretty strong and sometimes, it will even offend.

If we're not for Him we are...?

Against Him.

I feel we need to be more spiritually aware, for every earthly thing, there is always something spiritual behind it.

Sometimes we pray to God for a blessing, and God uses people. Sometimes He wants to bring some things to us, but because of what we feel is right, we hinder Him, and then we go back home, crying to God, "God, why didnt you give me a blessing, a breakthrough? Ive been praying so long!"

Dont you think that will irritate God?

Like.."Here I am, wanting to bless you. You dont want it. And now, you complain that you dont have it..."

Come on, lets grow out of that kiddish mentality.

A person who sacrifices for us, who gives unconditionally for us, yes, it hurts them sometimes, but nevertheless, these people do it with joy, fulfilling the call of God upon their lives.

These are our great leaders, mentors in life, who are willing to set an example for us to follow, yes, we show them our concern, but more importantly, lets respect and honor these people that God has raised up, to be a blessing and an influence for our generation. :)

I remembered my incident where I promised a word to a friend to go jamming. But last minute, I had to attend a multiple service, because I wanted to. In that case, God spoke very clearly to me, swear to my own hurt, keep to my word and meet that friend. Can you imagine it, God Himself asking me to skip an extra service!

Is going extra service a good thing? Yes. But at that moment, God wanted something else done. To cut the story short, I had a fruitful time that day.

Anyways..

If you truly care, we can always learn 'repayment', or in "Christian Lifestyle" terms, restitution. (or was it Victorious Living? Hmm, haha. Cant rem)

Treat him/her to a meal, give them a good birthday gift, send him/her words of appreciation, in this way, the relationship is two-way, and when there is agreement, there is power! :)

When God offers something to us, do we feel 'paiseh' about it?
No, we take ALL WE CAN! lol. Similarly, if we treat God like that, do we treat people the same way, 'unknowingly'? We just wanna 'take all we can' and not be willing to give back to the person.
We'd rather take the shortcut of convenience.

We think:

If the person doesnt sacrifice, then I wont feel the need to repay him/her. So its better if he/she doesnt sacrifice, so I no need to feel compelled to give anything in return.

To me, that is the wrong mentality! We totally missed out on whats the most important.

If we fail to understand the heart of fellowship,
We fail to understanf the heart of God, that longs for fellowship.

God placed people in our lives for a reason.

Imagine you give you offering to God and He says, 'no need la, keep it, I know you need to eat later, I paiseh laa...' then what kind of whimpy God we serve?

He receives it with the same joy you give it.

Then what?

He blesses you back, WITH INTEREST!

Lets not just be takers, but lets be givers. People who are generous. ;)

Jesus says, "I have come to give you life, and life more abundantly."
To us, if we wanna be like Him, can we say the same thing too? ;) Food for thought.