Lovest Thou Me More Than These? (John 21:15)

There is a biblical principle. God, in an attempt to prove His sovereignty and keep us from idolizing what He gives us, and also from relying on human effort, delays some things. He does this so that when they finally come, you can never give credit to those things for who you become. You also can never idolize those things.

So the principle is this: _God will not give you something you are not willing to freely lose._

In other words, if you value something soo much, Soo excessively, God in His love will keep it from you. He will sustain you until you no longer view that thing with such importance over Him.

This is a recurring principle , again and again in scripture…

Abraham's delay was so that finally, when he received the son, he could say, "It is only because of God that I got this."

He was willing to freely give Isaac away because he knew that God, the Source, could provide again (Genesis 22).

The same applies to Hannah. The moment she was willing to lose her son, to give him back to the Lord, that was when God gave him to her (1 Samuel 1).

The same applies to David. He came to a point where he no longer valued the throne more than he valued God, even before he ever sat on it (1 Samuel 24; 26).

It is as though you are already sowing what the Lord will give you. That is actually the principle of sowing and reaping from another angle.

For you to reap, you must sow. You sow a seed of the exact fruit you’ll want to reap. You cannot sow corn and expect to reap grapes. So from the corn you already have you reap more corn.

the question is: are you willing to give it away in order to reap more?

Look at the Samaritan woman. Jesus said, "Give me a jar of water" (John 4:7). Then He spoke of the life giving water that He has, water that would make her never thirst again. It was as if He was saying, "I am willing to trade you ordinary water for the water that I have" (John 4:10–14).

So ask yourself: what you are praying to God for, are you willing to freely lose it? If that job, that relationship, that dream, that gift will end up becoming an idol, God will not give it to you until you are no longer attached to it.

That is the test. That is the qualifying process. And that is the path to receiving without losing your soul.

Signed

Anonymous