IT JUST HAS TO OOZE OUT. 062

Thus, in their business life Christ’s followers are to be light bearers to the world. God does not ask them to make an effort to shine. He approves of no self-satisfied attempt to display superior goodness. He desires that their souls shall be imbued with the principles of heaven, and then, as they come in contact with the world, they will reveal the light that is in them. Their honesty, uprightness, and steadfast fidelity in every act of life will be a means of illumination. The kingdom of God comes not with outward show. It comes through the gentleness of the inspiration of His word, through the inward working of His Spirit, the fellowship of the soul with Him who is its life. The greatest manifestation of its power is seen in human nature brought to the perfection of the character of Christ. {7T 143.2}

Don't try, just do.

This short sentence seems counterintuitive.

How can one do, without trying, or putting in effort?

The quote says that God desires us to be so filled with the principles of heaven that they might be naturally revealed as we come in contact with others.

But how are we to be filled with the principles of heaven?

Here is where the work comes in, and this a key to spirituality.

At a time when I used to play soccer, I practiced incessantly. This “practice” looked like thinking about soccer, eating soccer, watching soccer and highlight videos as much as it meant actually practicing with a team and working with a ball. When I did work with a ball my goal was to work so hard that everything would be natural when it actually mattered. On my best weeks, I would not have to rely on motivation to get me going, I seemed to be in autopilot, I felt as if I was on cruise control, my mind was locked in.

Then when I was in the games, I felt more prepared and everything felt natural, instinctual.

When this wasn’t the case, if I was focusing too much on my game while I was in the game, I would play bad.

And that’s the point, don’t focus on your game in the game, focus on your game in practice, then the game will come naturally.

And I think this is how spirituality works.

Work for a relationship with God, read the Bible, pray, sing the songs, remember the memory verses, even when you don’t want to and even when –inclination— tells you to just relax. Don’t’ rely on motivation, rely on principle and eventually Jesus will ooze through every orifice of your body.

It will be too natural to hide and impossible to fake.

When God gave His Son to the world, He endowed human beings with imperishable riches, riches compared with which the treasured wealth of men since the world began is nothingness. Christ came to the earth and stood before the children of men with the hoarded love of eternity, and this is the treasure that, through our connection with Him, we are to receive, to reveal, and to impart. {7T 143.5}

The hoarded love of eternity. Don’t you just love that? I imagine Christ stockpiling love, love that already is immeasurable and just pouring it in and on us. When we touch this love, and taste it, when we become it, as I said before, it just oozes from us.

Lord, give us the commitment to work, to labour, in secret, in the closet, so that when the lights are on, the Love that you pour into us,

Will just come oozing out.

IJN,

amen

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