Good Morning Ladies,
If this is your first time tuning into “The Kitchen Table” and or if you didn’t have a chance to read the first part of this blog, please see Saturday, Feb 3rd, “Love Is Having To Say, “It’s Not About Me!” It will make it much easier to follow what I want to share today.
Okay, let’s get down to business and pick up were we left off. I would have to say the biggest change in my life once I got the revelation that this life that God has blessed me with, is really not about me, was, that I was no longer miserable. Yes, “miserable.” And the truth of the matter is, there are to many of us who are in the Household of Faith, who are miserable, but we just don’t want to own up to it. So we put on our happy fake face, that all is well. But in order to be Free, we have to take a look at the ugly or to dress it up, “the not so pleasant things about ourselves.” I was one miserable sister. Due to my teaching and counseling ministry for women, I constantly felt used, put upon, taken advantage of, taken for granted and the list goes on. Put all those feelings together and you have “miserable.”
It would be nice to tell you that one day as I was feeling sorry for myself or licking my wounds, and the Holy Spirit just sat me down gave me a good talking to and, “wham!” I totally understood the error of my ways. But, it didn’t happen that way. It took reading and studying God’s Word concerning my life. Seeking to find out “why” I was so miserable belonging to such a wonderful God? It was then that I began to see through the life and ministry of *Yeshua, that my thinking was all wrong. Yep, I was wrong, not everyone else.
Our Messiah was totally selfless starting with thinking it not robbery as God to come to earth to be man and take on all our sins. Wow, how wonderful! And He gave us a blueprint of how we are to walk in His footsteps on this earth and it does not have a layout of, “It’s about me” at all. It is a blueprint, of “Esteeming others higher than ourselves,” “Being able to lay down our lives for someone else,” “Loving, when we are not loved back.” Put all this together and you have, “Selflessness” that is what the life of a Believer should be. We are not to put “self” first, but “others.”
In my days of misery, my feelings of being taken advantage of, not appreciated, used, and put upon stemmed from the many women (and family) I have taught or counseled over the years. I have been asked to speak or teach at women’s retreats, conferences, luncheons, church functions, and teach weekly Bible Studies. Often there involved travel of some sort, (even to a different state) and when it was all said and done, there were times I might have gotten a hug or pat on the back, but I didn’t receive any money. I never asked for anything and the travel didn’t involve catching a plane, but a love offering would have been nice to cover gas or any other expenses. Or just to show me that they cared. To me, this was not being appreciated, being used and defiantly being taken for granted. Didn’t these women read their Bibles? What is wrong with them?
Oh, but it gets better. Let’s take a look at the countless hours I have spent over the years counseling women over and over on the same issues and they still continue to “do what they want to do” yet using me as an ear when it all goes wrong or plays out like the Bible said it would. Lord, was I tired of that! Oh, and here is another one, “the ones who only call when they want something.” Yeah, haven’t heard from them in months and now all of a sudden they have a problem or find themselves in a mess, and they are ringing my phone. People constantly wanting my help, but not there to help me; after awhile you start to feel used and oh so put upon. This is why so many days of my life had some portion of “miserable” in it. But when the light came on that I was bought for a price and this ‘miserable’ life of mine did not, and I must say it again, “Did Not” belong to me, thus began a renewing of my old mindset and putting away the things that did not look like Yeshua.
The fact that Ephesians 4:30-32 says we are to put away all malice, shows us that this is something we have to work at. We have to take this Biblical truth and apply it to our lives in order to walk in its benefit. That is when I made the decision I no longer had to return the favor. What does that mean? No longer did I have to be snippy or short with people because that was the way they were treating me. No longer did I have to hold a wrong done, waiting for them to do something so that I could bang them over the head with it. I no longer wanted to repay evil for evil.
The more I looked at the selfless life of Yeshua, the more I understood the importance of the position that God has placed me in and that I can’t possibly be taken advantage of when I am serving Him. He is the one that puts certain people in my life that I am to help. So what if they take it for granted? They are not taking me for granted, but that which the Lord has set before them. If God says, “I want you to talk to them every time they call” then if they call me 50 times in one month, I have to take that call. But I now take it with a different heart. It is a heart of service to others, for my Lord. There is no way I should feel put upon doing His biding.
We live in a very “selfish” society and that makes us have to be even more determined then ever to put "self" away, and respond in love, esteeming others higher then ourselves. Its work my dear sisters and though I walk in freedom from misery, I still have to fight those old feelings from time-to-time. The victory is to not let them come back to live and or take over in any way.
Since it really does take work to be like Christ, we have a special drawing today for the book, “Love Walked Among Us…Learning To Love Like Jesus”. This is a wonderful book that shows you the life of our Messiah on this earth and the author Paul E. Miller really opens up the history and traditions of that time which gives you a much better understanding of exactly what Jesus’ ministry was really all about. Send an email to thekitchentable2010@yahoo.com, with your name, city and state. This offer is for residents of the USA, UK, and Canada. This drawing ends Tuesday, February 23rd 6:00am ET, USA. The winner will have to supply a mailing address for the book to be shipped directly to them, and you have 5 days to claim your prize after you are notified that you have won. The winner will be announced in Tuesday’s blog.
There is still one more aspect of “It’s Not About Me” that I feel led to cover, so though I didn’t know it before today, there will be a part 3. ~Smile~
I pray that you have been inspired to dig deeper into the Word to see what it has to say about your life and what you can do to make change.
*Yeshua is the Hebrew name for our Messiah. Christians call Him, Jesus, but in Pat’s blogs the Messiah will be referred to in His Hebrew name of Yeshua.
Winner of Thursday’s drawing “Hidden Treasures” is…. Lisa Swieson, Broomall, PA
Blessings,
Pat
Join me on Saturday, March 6th for "Part III". Until then, be blessed in our Lord.
Monday's Blog: Sharon Daniels, "Women & Their Finances"
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