glory – happyreign

“I want you to show love.” Hosea 6:6 _NLT
“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” James 1:22 _NLT

Preaching to myself through this word study. Focusing on the first quarter of the verse in Hosea, God communicated to us how he desires us to act. Keep in mind God asks nothing of us he doesn’t already: 1) embody himself or 2) hasn’t already given us the full ability to execute his clear direction.

The Hebrew word for love here as translated in the New Living Translation is (H2617) defined primarily in the Strong’s Concordance as kindness, piety (towards God, defined as acts of devotion), or subjectively, beauty: good deed, loving-kindness, kindly, mercy, goodness, faithfulness. The primitive root of the word used in this verse is the verb chasad (H2616): to bow in courtesy to an equal, that is to be good, to be kind; to show kindness to oneself.

Do you need to hear God telling you “I want you to show love” to yourself?? Are you being gracious with yourself? Generous? Kind? Full of mercy and faithfulness to you; the you God made in his own likeness after his own image? God has called you to walk in his love and to display it but you (and I) will be handicapped in doing this to and for others when we withhold this same posture to ourselves.

Have you been hard on yourself lately? Have you beat yourself up over something? Are you disappointed in something you keep returning to or a lesson in life you cannot seem to pass? Don’t wait. Don’t wait. Don’t wait, to love yourself. Don’t wait until you change. Don’t wait until you improve. Love yourself now. Agree with God; who loves you now.

There is a sufficient savior who carries you, who sees you, who chooses you, who knows you and, to be honest, delights in you. Is hopeful over you. Who wants to show you off. Your father is proud of who you are because he made you; you reflect his glory and there is nothing you can do about it. You, my friend, are a delight to be around. You are one to look forward to spending time with. You are precious.

Please don’t pour out of an empty cup, or keep your cup overturned because you don’t feel worthy to receive God’s abundant kindness and goodness. His presence is sweet and its even sweeter with you in it. Receive this grace that is fresh, that is enough, that covers your wrongs, and celebrates your goodness, because He is your father and you look an awful lot like him.

Oh Creativity. Creativity is powerful. It transcends the mind and enters the soul. It moves the heart and causes us to feel winds of life. Creativity enters our senses, whether through interior design, music, cooking, art, or dance, and so much more. It’s the theater that causes us to cry and the fashion that leads industries. Creativity is the solution to the worlds problems and the builder of bridges that speak across the barriers of language.

Heaven is the origin of ideas. Heaven is the place color comes from. It’s the revealer of the unseen and the origin of society’s progress. The words that form the books that causes revolutions are the fruit of creativity and original ideas. Liberty is expressed through creativity. Life is witnessed through expression. Our participation with creativity reminds us we too are the outlets of divine beauty in addition to our counterparts in nature.

Songs awake emotion buried deep beneath life’s experiences. Have you drank from the river of creativity. Is the taste fresh in your memory? There lies a thin veil between endless original movement and sound and our present reality. Everything is accessible. Anything is possible. Do not belittle or underestimate your innate ability to create.

My admonishment is to discover how creativity lives through you. It may be in computer coding, wood craftsmanship, the making of the perfect coffee drink, how you express financial spending trends, how you cause your loved ones to experience your love, the painting of your own nails, or even the style of your walk.

Life is made alive, life is made fun, through creativity. Creativity is a muscle that grows stronger the more you use it. Unique and new expression causes the sparkle to return to our eyes and causes childlike wonder in our spirits. Elementary education may unrecognize and underdevelop the power of creativity in young people but that is in part because its hard to quantify and we’re taught it doesn’t make as much money as practical skills like math and science, although both of those fields can be saturated with creativity as well.

In actuality creativity sells like Gold in any culture. Fashion, film, television, writing, singing, performance, advertising, theater, design, art, musical skill, fine dining, and the like, the best in all of these fields are priceless in their hiring and sought out all over the world. Creatives shape the reality everyone experiences every day, including the look of your home, the device your reading this on, the clothes your currently wearing, down to the packing of the food you have in your fridge.

I cannot communicate the importance creativity plays in God’s kingdom and the synergy heaven shares with life expressed through humanity. Our expression, humanity’s expression, is like the flower in bloom of our species. It appears not to have a necessity just as a flower but creativity is the beauty and aroma of our generation.