No Strings Attached

Dear Lord! There will always be those people in your lives that give, but never forget. Or the ones that give and expect the same, similar, or even better in return. Afterall they really went the distance for you and you put them out. There are always strings attached. I have heard them called draining friends. One of my friends that is this way knows she deals with this and it has caused her great bitterness and depression in the past. It is glorious how YOU are pulling her out of this mindset and freeing her up to live a life of giving with joy and a grateful heart! I think beautiful!

I can not go too far on in my prayer without confessing that I too have been one of those kinds of friends. It seems that I try not to be, but then when something goes not my way (problem one) I begin to have immediate recollection of what nice deed I thought I had done for someone. Isn't that awful. It is almost like a thought I can not stop. It just pops in and resonates throughout my day or at least 30 minutes. There can be strings attached! Lord, change that about me. I want to live more of giving life and grateful heart. That to me is part of living out the Joy of Jesus!

Well, as I am studying more and more about Micah 6:8 I have come to find out that this is not one bit of your character, Lord Jesus! You give to give and bless to bless with no strings attached! How cool is that. The part of the verse I am talking about is the "Love Mercy" section. That is a different love than I have ever seen - not agape or anything like that, but "ahab". It literally means strong emotional attachemnt for and desire to posses. You can see this ahad in Deut. 6:5. "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

And then mercy is "hesed". It is all of mercy that you would think, but it is one that is usually reciprocated. But the neat thing about it in the scripture I looked up is that one party is telling the other party they want this same kind of mercy shown back to them. It is a mercy with strings attached, but at least it is spoken and not assumed. You see this is the story of Rahab. She tells them if you save my family, I will save you all in Joshua. You see this is Abimalech and Abraham. BUT when hesed is used to describe our Lord like in Ps. 100:5 or 59:10 the mercy is ever flowing even when we are unfaithful and incapable of returning it! I am amazed!

There are no strings attached in your kindness and mercy towards your people. In the midset of Your kindness and and mercy I know your expect righteous and upright walking, but then again that is only to bless us again - with no strings attached. Lord, I am amazed by You! I am in love with You and ask that You grow my love even more and more! Thank you for bringing my family back together and getting us ready for school! Bless the kids as they walk into their classes and get going on another year! Thank you for confirmations and blessings! I love you!