For the past two weeks I have been asked by a few different people “what is the Lord teaching you this week?” So often we will overlook the lessons in life that the Lord is trying to teach us. The Lord is a constant teacher and a consistent teacher. He wants us to grow, but first we must be open to growing.
The primary area that I am growing in this week is being open to allowing others to give and serve me. I am hardheaded and stubborn, and I know it. I know I am not good at receiving, or asking for help and allowing others to help. I want to do everything myself. I like to think I don’t need help but how wrong I am. The Lord really has weighed on my heart that I NEED to be open to being served and receiving what others are tying to give. He uses others to bless people, and I am blocking His blessings in my life.
I love giving. I have never been fond of receiving things though. I always find it awkward for some reason. It is the stubborn independent side of me. I think I don’t need anybody to give me anything. If I need something I can get it myself. The Lord is continually breaking me of my independence.
One of my favorite books is the Go Giver. It is actually a book about business strategies. One of the lessons in the book is called “the law of receptivity.” The law states that the key to effective giving is being open to receiving. If you are like me you are thinking, “wait, isn’t it better to give than it is to receive?”
Is it really better to give than to receive though? A giver likes to give, meaning some one has to be willing to receive, right? We all can’t be givers alone. Who then would we be able to give to if we were all givers? If there were no receivers, there would be no givers. If there were no givers, there would be no receivers. We would have all these blessings stored up but nobody to bless. It would be a dead end.
If you don’t receive then you are blocking some one from the joy of giving. You are blocking some one from blessing you. You are stopping the flow of giving and receiving, the cycle ends.
I forgot exactly what started the Lord placing all this on my heart but He has provided me with several instances to grow in this area. Every time I come across the opportunity to allows others to serve me I still argue with God about it. I refuse it, but of course I lose the fight every single time.
I put up a fight about allowing someone to bless me by paying for an excursion for me. The person knew that I loved history and ruins and offered to pay for me to go see the local ruins here. I politely turned down the offer and when I said no he asked me why I would not allow him to bless me. That is the first time I ever thought of it as not allowing some one to bless me. I immediately thought of how much I would not like it if some one refused a blessing that I was offering. I fought with the Lord in my mind about it and gave in as soon as I realized I was blocking some one from being a blessing.
A couple days later I found myself sick. The first thing I did was tell my teammates I like to be left alone when I am sick. I told them if I needed anything I would find them and let them know. I was convicted yet again. “Let others serve you,” was what kept going through my mind. Later that day when I started feeling better I told some of my team members that if I get sick again they are allowed to bug me, check on me, and do whatever they feel because I know some of them love serving that way. They are natural care takers. I gave in to Gods will and gave them permission to serve and I would be willing to receive it.
The very next day was valentines days and the guys on our squad had a night of service planned for all of us ladies. They were going to wash our feet, remove the toe nail polish, massage our feet, and put new polish on our toe nails. The first thing I thought was “nope, I am not going to allow these guys I barely know to touch me and my nasty feet.” Of course my “nope” didn’t matter to God. My plans never match His. I am learning that over and over and one day I will learn to not argue with Him.
I got up from sitting against the wall and went and stood in the line to have the guys serve us. I have to admit I was happy the Lord talked me into that. I felt so honored to have the men on our squad serve us so well. It was amazing to see guys with such beautiful serving hearts. I thought how blessed we were to have these men and how great examples they are of Godly men. The guys prayed over each of us after each station, then served us dinner, gave each of us a rose, and a handwritten note. I thought this is exactly how Valentines day should look.
The Lord is still continually teaches me to allow others to serve me and I have to remind myself to not block others from blessing me. I have to remind myself that receiving is giving as well. There are so many other lessons that I am being taught and so many areas that I am growing in and I am loving every minute of it. I can’t even imagine the person I will be when I return in nine months. I will continually grow and continually let the Lord shape me into His image….
