A Fresh flowing River

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38 NIV)

Yesterday, a friend of mine called me to check on me. Wanted to see if I was o.k. since I sent my daughter to her first day of kindergarten. (More details and pics. on that later.)
I said I was fine, not many tears. However, I poured some things on her about other things in my life. We both shared about what God is doing in us, and the struggles we are facing at the same time. Although, yet again, I felt as if I was the one that got the most ministering to. She encouraged me and spoke so much life into my circumstances, then showed up on my door step with flowers, among other things, God bless her!

Lately I have felt like so many have been pouring into me. When she showed up on my doorstep I cried, and told her how I didn’t expect all that she did for me. She said “I knew you were going to say that. You know how to give, now you need to receive.” (I must say I think none of us realize how much we struggle with receiving until we have to receive) Then another friend called me last night. She wanted to cry on me, and share her struggles, which I was more than happy to oblige. I was specifically chosen since she knew I was in the same boat with her. I turned around and gave back to her all that had been poured into me that morning. Only I couldn’t take her flowers because we are states away. After feeling better about her situation she went on to feel bad for “dumping” on me. I told her that was not necessary. I was able to release what I had received. Then I said “if you want to feel better about it, go tomorrow and find someone to share this with”.

There is something about sharing your faith that actually stirs it up. Speaking out what you know to be true, even when your feelings dictate otherwise, somehow breaks off the depression and breathes life right back into you!

It reminded me of a former post I had written:

Joyce Meyers wrote in “The Confident Woman” of two seas that the Jordan River flows into. The first is life-giving; children play and swim there, and it is full of fish, and life, and trees grow by its shore. The second has none of those things. It has no life, no fish, no trees. The water is so full of salt that you would float if you tried to swim in it. The first one is the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus taught and could often be found. The second, I am sure you have guessed, is the Dead Sea. One has life, the other death. Why? They both form from the same river. Yet only one both receives and gives freely, and breeds life. The other takes in, gives nothing of itself, is isolated, and death is all that is there. I have even recently heard reports on the news that the Dead Sea is slowly disappearing, half of what it was, and no one knows why.

Think about that for a moment … the difference between life and death is giving of what you have and receiving from others what you don’t.