Sometimes we have an odd response to blessing — we don’t want to receive it. We’re like an animal that has lived in a cage for a long time. When the cage door is opened to to freedom, the animal doesn’t know what to do. The cage is familiar and safe.

We have a calling on our lives to do amazing work in the kingdom. But we have to get past our own self-defeating limitations and step out with God. It takes trust that He will back us up when we need Him to.

You can’t walk on water until you get out of the boat. It’s crazy to think about, but miracles are like that. Let go of what you have to control and trust God to open doors for you. And when the doors open, go out! Yes, the familiar feels safer, but the blessing of obedience brings amazing opportunity.

Ask God if you’ve been holding back. Ask Him what He wants to do for you. Ask Him for faith to follow Him where ever He leads. Then enjoy. It’s going to be awesome.

God is definitely in the habit of messing with our heads. Jesus went to great lengths to describe an abomination that He expected His disciples to receive — eating His body and drinking His blood. Everyone was grossed out. What was Jesus’s response? Does this offend you? (John 6:61)

What’s the right answer to that? To say yes would be admitting that you don’t receive the word the He gave. To say no means that you’d be ok with eating flesh and drinking blood. Without understanding the real context, you just have to believe that Jesus wasn’t being disgusting.

Does this offend you? How often has offense kept us from understanding deeper truths?  Yes, we understand that we are saved by grace. That’s a basic truth. But that’s just the doorway to the kingdom. There is so much more to learn about our God. Jesus tried to teach more, but could not. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (John 3:12)

We’re supposed to pray on earth as it is in heaven, because our world doesn’t look like heaven. If we are to learn heavenly things, then what He has to teach will be radically different from what we think we know. Are we prepared to be radically changed? Or will we be offended? A smart answer would be to press in and learn more.

The foundational attitude of the Christian should be that everything is done in love. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. (I Cor 13:3)

No matter what we do, if we do not love through it, we are not responding correctly. This takes some serious devotion. God has to do some real work in us for that to be true. We have a lot of history to let go of. We have to go against societal norms that push us to get our own way.

Love is the air we breath in the kingdom. Check yourself and see what your motivations are. In your daily interactions with people, you probably never even think about it. That’s why we have to submit ourselves to God. He has to change us and renew our minds. When we are filled with His Spirit, we led by Him, when we choose to pay attention. Our actions can actually be motivated by love.

Ask God to help you love more. Ask Him to remove anything from your life that keeps you from loving. Be honest with Him and confess any unholy attitudes that you know you have. Ask Him to fill you with His Spirit so you can be the loving one that changes the lives of people you meet with. Love is awesome. Get more.