Give Christ Away

In this time of division and polarization, Aglow President & CEO Jane Hansen Hoyt brings insight to bring us into unity again. Listen as Jane shares from Galatians 5 and invites us to, come up higher and Give Christ Away to others.

Luke 6:38
Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

It is so easy to get caught up in performing acts of service with a selfish heart posture, even if what we are doing is truly good. However, the fulfillment that comes from doing things with a servant's heart outweighs any temporary satisfaction from simply doing a good deed to look like a "good person".

• What are some areas you find "self care" slips into doing things for personal gain, rather than out of a place of service?
• How can you allow the Holy Spirit to take you to a higher place in service?

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

I love the scripture found in Galatians 5 where it's speaking about love. It talks about, in love, we serve one another for all the law. Just think of that: all the law is fulfilled in one word “thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself”. Goodness, sometimes we read that scripture and we think, “well that's impossible I know I can't love like that and we innately understand that there is a self-core within us that always wants to serve itself in some kind of way. Even in serving others, you'll think to yourself, you may not verbalize it, “oh i feel good about that” because you feel like you've done something good. And that could be even the human thought that leads to good works, but when we're full of the spirit of God and we've received the baptism of God, there is an activity by the Spirit within us that leads us to do things we would never consider doing. In serving, in giving, we might think, “well why would I serve that person, they haven't been very nice to me” and, yet, there's this impetus within you to give and to serve. Or perhaps you live with someone who needs constant serving, and there comes a weariness in that, and you think, “but what about me”. It’s so human, but I believe God is taking us to a higher place. Come up higher and that higher place is to lose yourself, not your identity, not the healthy stuff of things we've learned, of knowing who you are and walking with the Spirit in a healthy way. 

But in walking in a healthy way, there also comes a desire to be of service to others. And so as we think about loving one another and serving one another, let us consider that it is the love of God pouring out of us to help to serve those we know - Maybe someone we don't even know. Have you found yourself at the grocery store, helping someone you don't know or serving someone in your own home that perhaps you think, ”let them do that” and yet there's this prompting of the Spirit. Let’s obey those promptings. The love of God is wanting to be spread, spread out in the earth and it's in this way that we are walking with him, giving up ourselves in a healthy way, to give Christ to the world. God bless you.