It is very hard to deprive ourselves of what we want, and really when there is need it is much more difficult to practice it, because we think a lot about our benefits or that we will receive at the moment of stripping, but the Bible teaches us that "We must give by grace what by grace We received".
Many times we empty ourselves with the intention of receiving something in return, because that is the way it should not be, whenever we strip ourselves with our heart, looking to God at all times, the apostle Paul teaches us in one of his letters that everything that let us do it as if we were looking at God himself, without exalting ourselves in front of man.
To be able to divest ourselves we must first make our pride die, and give without hurt, since God observes everything. In the Bible we found a number of men and women who stripped themselves, giving everything without receiving anything in return, they did it looking at God.
1 Kings 17: 12-13
And she said, As the LORD your God lives, I have no cooked bread; only a handful of flour I have in the jar, and a little oil in a jar; and now I was picking up two logs, to enter and prepare it for myself and my son, so that we could eat it, and let ourselves die.
Elijah said: Do not be afraid; go, do as you said; but first make me a small cake baked under the ashes, and bring it to me; and then you will do for yourself and your son.
What a great lesson this woman gives us and more when in our country we are going through difficult economic times, look at the attitude of the prophet Elijah, he knew how to ask, even knowing that there was little that she had in her home, but the widow did not think of her benefit but in that of the prophet of God.
How tremendous to live such a situation, and much stronger to get rid of your child's morsel to give to a stranger who does not even know who he is or where he comes from, but when we walk in faith we take the attitude of the widow, nothing matters only to serve God through the prophet.
1 Kings 17:14
For Jehovah, the God of Israel, has said thus: The jar of flour shall not run short, nor shall the oil of the jar dwindle until the day when the Lord rains it on the face of the earth.
She believed that word, she trusted not in the prophet but in God, and it is what you and I must do, to divest yourself of believing God that he will sustain you even in these times of crisis that we are living.
The fact of greater denomination in the bible was that of our Lord Jesus Christ, the being rich, having it all, stripped of its riches and its throne to give us eternal life, this is an act of courage, that is why we should be grateful for all that He does daily for us, not only two thousand years ago, but even today He intercedes for you and for me at the right hand of the Father.
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He emptied himself without expecting anything in return, he suffered without expecting anything in return and he died without expecting anything in return, all this is produced by love towards his neighbor, it is so nice to feel loved by a man who suffered hardships and anguish for living flatly happy and in harmony, all this has a single gain that you and I have life but an eternal life.
When we take heart from something that costs us, we feel a happiness that can not be described, in the same way Jesus feels to have died on the cross of Calvary, that act paid the price of all our illnesses and all our sins, pay attention to the opposite. I already pay the price, and how beautiful it feels when you have a debt and you do not have how to pay it, but suddenly someone tells you that I pay for it, it's wonderful you feel a discharge from your body and you can live more calmly.
Hebrews 12: 1
Therefore, we also, having around our great cloud of witnesses, let us shed all weight and the sin that besets us, and let us run with patience the race that lies before us.
