And he died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.
2. Cor 5:15
In Norway, I used to work in a center for mentally retarded people. I enjoyed it very much. The atmosphere was very joyful, mostly because of one of the residents, a 65 years old man, and 150 cm of height who had Down ’s syndrome. He was so funny; he loved music and started sing and dance to the smallest tune on the radio. He was obviously a Christian. After a while, I was told that his mum had taken him to church a lot during his lifetime. But even before I got that information, I could recognize his “life with God” on his life. Because of his state, he didn’t have very much of speech. But the few phrases he had were well known in the center. One of them was: “are you doing well?”
This phrase was so often repeated in the center, that I noticed that some of the workers were a little annoyed by it, and told him to calm down and don’t mind so much others business. In fact, the reaction of the workers stirred me very much! Of course, as a Christian, it was the most natural thing for my friend to show love and care for the others! 1. Thess 4:9 says:
But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
He was simply taught by God to love! Telling him to calm down, would be like robbing him from his lives purpose! Of course, when we become Christian, the first thing we experience is an overwhelming love for other people. It’s not something you are struggling to produce in your own strength; it’s something God in His grace puts inside all kinds of Christians when they become children of God!
For what?
To have a nice comfortable Christian club over gassed with love, so all can fall asleep quietly and in peace till Jesus comes back by singing “love is in the air” and “cumbayah”? NO! Then, if I was God, I would rather rapture all to heaven at once they’d prayed salvation prayer. Because at least I would be in a big risk of becoming backslidden if such a boring club was what Christian life was all about.
The reason why God has filled us with his genuine, perfect love for people is simply because on God’s heart, there are more children. -Children who don’t know how much God loves them; Children who have never heard about how much God desires to adopt them as his own, like he once adopted you. Letting you stay at earth, filled with his love gives him another physical body which whom He can love people! John 13:35 clearly states
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Because we love Him
When was last time you fell in love with a person? I’m unfortunately not an expert on that area. But I’ve noticed that when I fall in love with somebody, I attentively look for opportunities to get to know the certain person better. And in order to do that, I know one smart thing to do; get to know his friends! Find out what he is interested in, what he likes to do, where he likes to hangout. And I’ve realized that if I take courage and go there too, I will sooner or later get to know the certain person better! Whether it works out or not, is another story; because it’s not always sure that the certain person will love you back. But God loves you and will never leave you, nor forsake you (Hebr. 13:5)!
So you can safely respond to His love the same way! I don’t know about you, but I never have a hard time falling in love with somebody. And I tell you for sure; falling in love with Jesus is not hard; when you understand how much he loves you. 1 john 4:19 says that
We love Him because He first loved us.
But for sure, we have a choice whether you’ll let it fade out as a “distance love”, or take some courage and do what it takes in order to come into a close relationship to the person Jesus Christ! You can actually ask Jesus yourself: Jesus, what do you like? How can I love you more? Like the woman in the most romantic book in the bible, songs of songs. In verse 1:7 she asks the man:
Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?
She is in love with him! I mean; for what else should she find interest in asking about his sheep? Most girls don't care about sheep:-)
Maybe you have the same story? I know so many people who earlier hated people. But suddenly, when they fall in love with Jesus, they start mind about people! Why? Because Jesus is the good Sheppard of people! (John 10:11)
If you start living for the people who Jesus loves, you will never fail! Actually, Jesus loves people so much, so the only way you can get to know him more, is to start living for other people.
Starting to live for other people is not the easiest life. I’m convinced that I would be a Christian never sinning, at least never getting angry, –if it wasn’t because of this people! People may laugh at you and you may risk to be treated unfairly back for your noble motives and attempts doing good. –Just like the woman in the story in John 12:1-8; Mary was a girl who really loved Jesus; He had resurrected her brother from death, and was a good friend of the family. Once, she showed her love back to him by anointing his feet with expensive oil and drying it with her own hair. The people around made fun of her, said she was spilling. They even twisted her motives and accused her for stealing from the poor!
How often haven’t I heard the same; like when I decided to move to Ukraine to pour “my precious oil” over the beautiful girls and kids whom is both fatherless and orphans and are SO close to Jesus’ heart; “You are spilling money, potential, carrier, your Norwegian health insurance, you’re putting yourself and others in risk getting HIV, hepatitis, and so on.“
But did you notice that Jesus had pleasure in Mary’s “spilling”! Only she were able to anoint Jesus before his funeral (The women who came on Easter day were too late –Jesus was already raised.)
Is it worth it?
However, the question: Can I afford the “spilling?” will always appear. What will happen if I give 10% of my income to the local church? Will I get bankrupt? What will people around think if I go and talk with a person who smells bad and has no social skills? Will he fall in love with me or demand from me? And when all comes to an end; is it really worth it?
For the first, living for others is not something we can do in own power. God is so awesome that he has saved us for free; I hope you’re familiar with Ephesians 2:8-9:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
But it doesn’t stop here –it’s more in verse 10!
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Every good work you’ll ever do is carefully prepared by God! He also promises to make us rich and wealthy enough to do afford it! 2. Cor 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
God has so beautiful promises for us. He says that when we give up our selves, he will take care of us! (Luke 9:24)
Some of my favourite verses is Mattew 6:25-34 in New Living Translation. Read and enjoy!
25 "So I tell you, don't worry about everyday life -- whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn't life consist of more than food and clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don't need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not. 28 "And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he more surely care for you? You have so little faith! 31 "So don't worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. 32 Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, 33 and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. 34 "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today
This doesn’t mean that you should turn ascetic and stop going to the shop buying clothes, just waiting for God to give it to you. -It means to live for another purpose than being just cool, nice, well known by people, like this red stereo player I talked about in the previous chapter. It means to stay connected with your Heavenly Father! Let Him satisfy you! Let Him be your joy in life. And! Let his dreams be your dreams! My favorite verse (I have many –but this rocks!) is psalm 37:3-4
Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart
There are numbers of promises in the Bible that says that you are free to live for other people!
You’ll have to know…
Choosing to love Jesus more will always be regarded as strange with human eyes. You’ll very seldom find encouragement to start living for others in the newspaper or any other places except the Bible; because the human race today are robbed by egoism. Egoism is the bad seeds the devil has sawn on the earth today (Matt 7:24-30) Egoism is the famous mindset that circulates around me, mine, and what is in it for me, and so on. It’s already a lot of popular books, even Christians, at the market about realizing your dream, your potential, and your life.
God didn’t save you to live for yourself. Your self is what is left in the cocoon, the old life, that Jesus has freed you from! When you start living for yourself, you crawl back to the old cocoon of spit, dirt and sin. And there is no freedom and no life in there. A small, hard shell that decreases you!
It’s a “battle” the Devil is trying to win, by drawing people’s attention to self. Have you ever taken a look on a satanic bible? I don’t believe it’s a very significant book. But did you know; it doesn’t explain anything about how to worship the devil; it’s a book about how to worship yourself. It teaches people that “I am my own God. I can do whatever I want.”
Throughout the ages, the attempt of drawing attention to self has been the devils strongest weapon. People have even obtained glory as heroes by saying “I am so free. I can have sex with whoever I want. I can satisfy my flesh with whatever I find interesting.” But the Bible says that whoever commits sin is a slave –not free! ‘Cause all sins binds you back to your old cocoon –you old body of sin.
If you take a closer view, you’ll discover that all kinds of sins are in some way related to egoism. Let’s look at addiction to drugs as an example. Please, don’t take offence if you are, or have been like that. Your only hope, however, is found in Jesus Christ! But with love, I need to show you how evil addiction and egoism is.
The bondage in addiction is very strong; Very likely, it destroy their relationships with their loved ones, simply because their desire for drugs or alcohol to satisfy their flesh, is stronger than the desire of keeping their promises to their loved ones. It steals their houses, because their comitment to their addiction is stronger than the comitment to pay the rent. In the end, they’ll find themselves loving their addiction to drugs more than their own children! I’ve seen children left purposely by mothers, after consciously been looking into the eyes of their blameless adorable two year old girl, saying; “You know, mama have certain needs. You will for sure understand her when you get older”. It's nothing but evil!
It’s a story about someone like that in the bible in the book of Exodus; Pharaoh. He sinned and hardened his heart before the children of Israel. However, the sin robbed him and his nation for their food, their water, their health, and in the end, it turned so bad that he, and all his people, lost their firstborn child!
There's a lie that we can live to satisfy our self without affecting other people’s life. I'm not saying this to scare people, but to expose way the Devil is working; he came to murder, steal and destroy from us. (John 10:10) Egoism will always leave you robed, spiritually dead and destroyed outwardly and on the inside.
But Jesus came for you to have life and have it abundantly!
Know this; God also know the reason, and the root causes of the sins and addictions you may be bounded to. Maybe it’s a mixture of fear, guilt and worries. Maybe even somebody hurt you violently in the past! Giving yourself to sins like drugs or alcohol seemed to be the only way to survive your terrible conditions. I’m not taking your sins lightly. But I know this; Jesus is for sure the Sheppard and overseer of your soul (1. Peter 2:25). He is the one who will guide you; he will show you the truths that will lead you into complete freedom! (John 8:33) He longs to restore and give you back many times back what the Devil has stolen from you (Is. 61:7)! And before all, make sure you know;
Therefore, there are no condemnation for those who are in Christ!
Romans 8:1
You are created to live free! (Gal 5:1) Living to love others empties you for the last part of sin that may be left in you. The Love of Jesus is the only thing which is stronger than love to sin. Gal 5:16
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh
I remember how I used to be so troubled with worries about finances for tomorrow. I thought in my mind that I was very free; of course, I was a missionary, living by faith. But step by step, God showed me that I loved money. Why? Because I stored up a lot of money on my bank account for no reason; while my best friend had a big material need! The Bible says that God has loved us so much, that we can even afford to give our life for our brothers and sisters! (I john 3:16)
In the end, I gave in for God’s love and bought the needed computer to my sister from all the money I had stored up for a “rainy day”. It was hurting, yes. The Devil told me I was stupid and that I was spilling, and so on.
The end of the story was that I got so happy! Of course; it’s greater joy to give than to get. And I tell you; to fulfill other people’s dreams is so much more satisfying than struggling to fulfill your own. God will fulfill your dream! Start fulfilling His dream –telling the world that He loves them! Get out from the egoistic cocoon!
Do it practical!
I hate when people come to me and tell me that I wash the toilet wrong, without telling me how to do it right. So I’ll give you some simple advices you can take advantage from, if you are one of those desiering to enter freedom from yourself, but you simply don't know how.
For the first: Starting living for others is a choice you need to take every day, not only once in a lifetime! The Bible encourages us in 1. Tess 4:9 to enrich our love to one another! Not so long time ago, I really wanted new clothes and makeup, but I could't afford it. But then, God showed me a scripture that said that good works makes a woman more beautiful than a nice outfit (1. Tim 2:10). so I decided to put some more effort into doing good work! This may sound like a very egoistic motive for doing good, but I tell you, it works! It really makes you beautiful, and as you do it, God's love flows through your life!Make sure you've remembered about your "makeup" today!
Secondly: You'll have to walk by faith; I agree with you completely: You don't have time for this. You don't have money, energy, health or even desire for doing this. But God has; and God wants your good works to succeed more than you. So please, rest in His words.
Make a habit to fill needs!
A good thing to do is to develop a habit to fill needs. It’s not as hard as it seems. Like in the train station in Donetsk, there are lines with baggers; old and invalids. Everybody is passing by. But I know that God has not created me to be like everybody; I have Jesus Christ present in my life through the Holy Spirit! The baggers are all asking for money, but their biggest need is of course; they are sick! I often ask God to show me how to fill needs. He knows! The Bible has many advices of how to fill needs of sickness; one I just recently discovered one; to visit them! (Mattew 25:36) You can sit down with them, ask for their names. Ask about what’s the matter. Make a conversation. And God’s love will reveal! Maybe you'll get opportunity to pray with them for healing or salvation, take them to church or fill some material needs!
Recently, a woman came and told me that her fiancé had no money for contact lenses-water. And because I’m trying to develop the habit of filling needs, I gave her. I didn’t get bankrupt.
Another practical tip is to stay connected with your local church. I mean: I don’t have a house for homeless or drug addicted: But in my church, for sure somebody has. Jesus is working through the church even more effectively than when he was present in his own body 2000 years ago!
Plan to do good
Planning to “do good” is a very smart thing to do, especially if you earlier had a habit of planning to do bad! It’s several excuses for planning to bless people; Birthdays, Valentine’s day, mother’s day, 8th of march, Christmas, spring, winter, autumn, summer, children-rights day, name-day, or “I just feel like blessing you”-day. –Plot it in your calendar! Make a small card, give a hug, or make a party -all according to what you have in your hans. The Bible says that you'll always have enough, so don't regard what you have as not enough! In our rehab-center, there are several girls who experience to get their first birthday-party ever! My leader in ministry met his wife while putting up a Christmas celebration in an orphanage in Ukraine. God will surely bless you back (Gal 6:9)!
Together with somebody
You can also go together with somebody, and plan doing good together –maybe in your school or work! Then it will for sure get 1000 times better -and easier. Find a need, fill it! Use your talents. Pray, and in this way, you together with the almighty, all powerful, ever-loving God will fulfill His dream!
