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Selfish
What best describes your view of yourself? Are you a user or abuser? Are you a giver or a taker?
Lorraine Hansberry in her classic play, A raisin in the sun, described two types of people in the world. After her main character Walter Lee lost all of his money to a friend who cheated him and disappeared Walter concluded that life was filled with either "takers or the tooken." He put himself in the class of those were the "tooken;" the used and the abused.
When you give your best in love and someone takes your heart and leaves, you feel "tooken."
When you open your soul and pour out your most intimate secrets on the shoulders of a friend, only to hear your confessions in the circles of hot gossip, you feel tooken.
When you try to help, but your benevolent spirit is trampled and rejected, you feel "tooken."
What about God? Does this idea of giving and taking apply to God's people? When it comes to our relationship with God are we givers or takers? Do we seek to get what we want from God and stay close to Him until we get what we seek? Are there people who ask God to save them, then once saved disappear never to be heard of again?
How does God feel when we disappear from His presence after He has answered our prayers, healed our bodies, and blessed us immensely? He probably feels "tooken." Jesus healed ten lepers one day and all ten immediately left him. However, one came back and said thanks. That's when Jesus asked, "What happened to the nine?"
We should never use God for his benefits and not love him for his benevolence and show that love through our obedience.
Let's love God. Obey God and serve God, rather than use him for our own benefit.