Zebra Ministries

Good morning Zebras,

I love you.

Most every day I take two walks, I walk my dogs in the morning and I walk myself in the afternoon, but yesterday it was supposed to get hot so I decided to walk myself in the morning too.

At the last minute, I decided to walk the dogs first which was a mistake.  As we strolled along, them stopping and sniffing at every bush, I realized that it was going to get hot before I could finish my big walk, which meant I was going to end up hot and crabby.

We think we are doing other people a favor when we put them first, but we aren’t if that means we are putting them before God. Jesus very clearly said if we wanted to be His disciple He needed to come first.

Luke 14:26: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

We don’t have anything to give others, except what God gives us.  He is the vine and source of living water.

John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 7:38–39: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”  By this he meant the Spirit.

Running dry on water?  Fruit looking rather puny?  Try increasing the time you spend with God.

 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” is the first and greatest commandment.  “Love your neighbor as yourself” is number two. (Matthew 22:37-39)

God first, others second.  If you reverse the order or even worse cut God out of the equation all together, you are going to find yourself walking up hill in the blazing sun getting hot and crabby.

Love,

Jill