What is
your pineapple?
Search your heart and ask God to reveal to you what it is that you are
still hanging on to. When the natives denied him his right to eat his
own pineapples, Nate got angry.
Maybe someone has hurt you by demanding
your time, not respecting your opinions or ignoring you. You can use
these feelings of hurt or anger as God's alarm system. Recognize that He
is revealing an area of your life that you have not yet surrendered.
Give those rights over to him, with the feelings of resentment or pain.
He can and will give you the grace to accept the situation and love for
the one who hurt you. You need only surrender and ask for the change.
Of Christ it was prophesied that he would
“bind up the brokenhearted... proclaim liberty to the captives...
comfort all that mourn... to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of
joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the
LORD, that he might be glorified.” Isaiah 61:1, 3
Christ offers each one of us the garment
of praise, his own robe of righteousness, but we cannot receive it while
we are occupied with defending our rights or our heart is full of
resentment.
Give all of your rights to God. Tell Him
that both yourself, everything you are and all you own, is His to do
whatever He sees best with. Purpose to thank God whatever happens. He
may remove some rights from you,
because
He sees that they would harm you. Thank Him for this. Others He may loan
you. Thank Him for these, too, but remember that they are not your
rights, but privileges to be used in glorifying Him. Consult Him about
how He wants them used.
An Example
A tenth part (the tithe) of all we earn is set aside as God's. In doing
this, we are not giving God ten percent of our income, but acknowledging
that all our money is His. A friend shared how remembering this stopped
him in his tracks on a purchase. He said, “I thought to myself, if Jesus
was physically standing here beside me, would I ask Him to give me some
money to buy this?”
Have you given your "pineapple" to
God? |