Give it away............

Lately, I've been starting my day by reading a devotion by Joyce Meyer (http://www.joycemeyer.org/). I love how the Lord has been using them to speak to me - it's as if I can hear his voice, whispering in my ear each morning. What an amazing way to star the day off.

This is today's devotion that I wanted to share with you:

God Loves You!

Saturday 2/3/2007

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. —John 3:16

John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son as a sacrifice for it. God loves you! You are special to Him. God doesn't love you because you are a good person or do everything right. He loves you because He is love. Love is not something God does; it is something He is. It is His nature. God's love is pure and ever flowing. It cannot be earned or deserved. It must be received by faith. In Ephesians 3:19 Paul prays that we may come to really know this love. When we do, we are strengthened in our inner man. When we are strengthened inwardly, outward difficulties cannot defeat us. Unless you have received it yourself, you cannot give love away. Let God love you. Receive His love for you. Bathe in it. Meditate on it. Let it strengthen you. Then give it away.

Say This: "God loves me. I am special to Him. I receive His everlasting love today and am strengthened in my inner man."

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I just started a new job this week which has taken my out of my comfort zone once again. Oh, how the Lord loves to do that in my life....just when I feel all cozy....POOF, time to shake things up! I've come to love this time when it hits, because I know He is going to use me in a way that will cause me to grow. When life is too easy for me I become stale in my walk with the Lord - and He knows that, thus the last two years of my life have been the most vibrant time I have ever experienced in my 12+ years of walking with the Lord.

The job environment itself is nothing new to me; I'm a "seasoned veteran" in the world of preschool - but it is how the Lord brought me here, and why that is different this time. I don't have my own classroom, and for the first time in 4 yrs I am not the boss.....but rather starting from the bottom. I feel as if the Lord brought me there not so much to "teach" but to minister to the staff - to wash their feet. Within the last week I have seen and heard much brokenness; met widows, single moms. I have learned to take the time and listen, to stop and hear what the Lord wants me too. I feel like I am there to encourage, support, pray for these hard working girls, many face difficult lives. What excites me is that I finally feel like I am at a place to do that, and even more exciting is that the Lord finds me worthy enough to do so. Even when I was "in charge" I was in no position to be an example or leader, yes I loved my staff....but I needed a lot of work! Thus God took me out of that situation and put me in a year long boot camp - Compassion 101! He used that time to teach me about true compassion, being a true servant, giving when you have nothing to give. It is like today's devotion said - unless you receive His love, you won't be able to give it away. Last year allowed me to truly bathe in it, meditate in it. It was what strengthened me. And now I'm in a place to give it away....

Bottom line is that God has given us such a precious gift that sometimes we hold on to it so tightly because it is so dear to us - yet all He wants for us to do is give it away...... to be His hands and feet, salt and light. That is my prayer for my new job and for life in general - to give His love away on a daily basis.