Listen to this inspirational lesson from Aminta Colon.
Giving Ourselves Away
This special time that we have with God, we’re going to be talking about giving ourselves to God. Each one of us has a name. He has a special name that He calls us by.
He calls us by that special name, and He has separated us. No matter what is going on in our lives, the things that are going on in our lives that are difficult, He calls us by our own names. In this month to come, we’re going to be talking about the Book of Exodus.
And in the Book of Exodus, we’re going to be discussing the Exodus from Egypt, how God has delivered us from our sins, how God has delivered us from our bandage. In the parasha for this month of the Book of Exodus, there’s a book of Shemot. Shemot is names.
God has a name for each one of us. In John 10-3, it says that this is one of the gatekeepers admits, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep, each own by his name, and leads them out.
As we go through our lives every day, one day we will come to a time that we’re doing this and we’re doing that, and the time that we have here on earth is going to be finished. We’re not going to have that time anymore, and we’re going to be in the presence of our Lord. So how do we spend that time? How do we give ourselves away to the Lord in this time that we have here on earth? How do we spend the time with God? Do we spend most of our time working, trying to reach for money, fame, trying to reach for people recognizing who we are, or going to school, or doing things around the house? What is it that took most of our time? He’s going to see where all that time went to when we stand in the presence of God.
Are we going to be in that position that we didn’t spend any time with Him? What type of time have we been spending with the Lord, the time that we’ve been spending with ourselves and just Him alone in His glory? Do we spend our time trying to do too many things in this world? Yeshua said in John 14, 15, If you love Me, you will obey My commandments. Do we spend our time learning about His commandments? Do we spend our time trying to do His commandments? He’s saying that if we love Him, we will do His commandments. And we have many commandments in the Scriptures.
We can go to the book of Exodus 20, and He gives us commandments there. We can go to the book of Leviticus 19, and He gives us commandments there. We can go to the book of Exodus 34, and He also gives us commandments there.
So there’s commandments, and are we spending that time learning what these commandments are and coming into fruition in our own life, integrating it with everything that we do every day? In this world, everything passes away, but the Word of God never passes away. It always stays with us. Do we spend our time in the computer? I know that sometimes I spend too much time in the computer trying to do paperwork, trying to do business, and whenever I see, the time has passed by.
How much time are we dedicating to things? Maybe watching TV or spending time with things, hobbies that we like to do. Yeshua told us that one day all things will come to an end and a beginning will start in His kingdom. What is it that we’re doing with our lives? How are we giving ourselves away to the Lord? We know that one day Yeshua is going to come back.
We read about that in Matthew 24. 36-39 For when that day and hour will come, no one knows, not the angels in heaven, not the Son, only the Father. For the Son of Man’s coming will be just as it was in the days of Noah.
Back then, before the flood, people went on eating and drinking, taking wives, becoming wives. Right up to the day Noah entered the ark, and they didn’t know what was happening until the flood came and swept them all away. It will be just like that when the Son of Man comes.
We are so busy doing this or doing that. We get busy with our own lives. We get busy with our work.
We get busy with our family members. And Yeshua wants us to spend more time with Him. Imagine if Yeshua would come to you and ask you the same question that He asked Peter.
That He asked Peter, Do you love me? What would you say if you are in the presence of God and He comes and He asks you that question? When He asks you that question and He says, Are you my friend? What are we going to answer you? What are we going to say? We know that Peter said, You know I love you, Lord. What are we going to say? What is the words that will come out of our mouths? God wants us to love Him. We probably cannot love Him the way that He loves us unconditionally.
But we can learn this love by reading about His commandments. By learning about His commandments. By doing His commandments.
So what is love? For one thing, God is love. We know this. And we know that we can express love by loving other people.
By loving our family members. By helping people. We can express our love by being there for someone that needs help.
We can express our love by praying for people. How do we love? How do we come to that point that we love? In 1 Corinthians it tells us something about love. In chapter 13, 3 to 8. I might give away everything that I own.
I might even hand over my body to be burned. But if I lack love, I gain nothing. And it tells us love is patient.
And kind. Not jealous. Not boastful.
Not proud. Rude or selfish. Not easily angered.
And it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not gloat over people’s sins. But takes its delight in the truth.
Love always bears up. Always trusts. Always hopes.
Always endures. Love never ends. And it keeps on telling us about love.
In 1 John 3, 16, it tells us that the way that we have come to know love is through his having laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. So how do we lay down our lives for our brothers? We know that Yeshua laid his life for us.
Well, he laid more than his life for us. He laid the place where he was comfortable at. He was sitting in his kingdom.
He was sitting on the throne. And he let that being comfortable there to come and do our work so we can be safe. He laid down suffering for each one of us.
He laid down being mistreated while he was here. He laid down when people spit at him and cursed him and told him all kinds of evil things. What is it that in our lives we are laying down for the Lord? Or what is it that in our lives we are laying down for other people? Are we laying down our anxieties? Are we laying down the people that are doing homosexuality? Are people laying down their desires, their selfish desires? Are they laying down pornography? Are people laying down their continuous worry about finances or medical bills or medical situations that are going on in your life? What is it that we are laying down so we can concentrate in the word of God? And we can concentrate in loving, on loving the Lord and learning about his commandments? What is it that is moving us to go forward with the love of God and to show that with our family members? In John 3, 18, it says, Children, let us love not with words and talk, but with action and reality.
What is it that we are doing in our lives to show that love for the Messiah? To show that love to our family members? To show our love to those people that hate us and persecute us? To show our love to our enemies or people that are out there that just want to hurt us? In Thessalonians 1, 5-17, it says that we can show our love by doing something that Yeshua did all the time and it’s praying continuously without ceasing. We can pray continuously without ceasing to show God that we want more of him. Praying that he fills us up with his Ruach HaKodesh.
That he fills us up with the spirit of thanksgiving and the spirit of love. The spirit of giving. The spirit of submission.
We know that Yeshua prayed all the time, consistently. In Mark 1, 25, it says, Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Yeshua got up, left, went away to a lonely spot, and stayed there praying. So we know that he prayed in the morning.
He prayed in the evening, Mark 14, 23. After he had sent the crowds away, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night came on and he was there alone.
So he prayed by himself. He prayed with other people. He prayed in big crowds.
He woke up early in the morning. He stayed up late at night. In Luke 4, 42, when day had come, he left and went away to a lonely spot.
The people looked for him, came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them. In Luke 5, 16, however, he made a practice of withdrawing to remote places in order to pray. We need to spend our time with the Lord.
Yeshua spent a lot of time praying, talking to God, seeing the direction. He prayed before he made big decisions. He prayed before he healed people.
He prayed for any and everything that we can think of. In Luke 6, 12, he says it was around that time that Yeshua went up out to the hill country to pray. All night he continued in prayer to God.
Sometimes to get that breakthrough in our lives, we need to consistently pray to God. To talk to Him. To be with Him.
To love Him the way that He wants us to love Him. And the way that we can do that by reading the Scriptures, that’s part of it. We read the Scriptures, and in reading the Scriptures, we find out His commandments.
And how to do His commandments. What to do. What is it that He is expecting from us.
In the Scriptures, they also mention different ways that we can pray when we’re worshiping with God. In 1 Timothy 2a, it says, Therefore, it is my wish that when the men pray, no matter where, they should lift up their hands that are holy. They should not become angry or get into arguments.
So one way that we can pray is standing up and lift our hands to God. And we can talk to Him. We can praise Him.
We can worship Him. In Luke 22, 41, He went about as stone thrown away from them, kneeled down and prayed. Another way to pray to God is kneeling down.
We kneel down to our knees, and we talk to Him. We ask Him for guidance. We ask Him to fill us up with His wisdom, His knowledge.
In Acts 7, 60, Stephen kneeled down and prayed. In Acts 9, 40, Peter kneeled down and prayed. In Acts 20 and 36 and Ephesians 3, 14, Paul kneeled down and prayed.
In Mark 11, 25, from when you stand and pray, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him. So another way that we can talk to God is we can also stand. We can also stand and pray to the Lord.
Anywhere that we are, if we can stand, sit, lay down, there’s always that opportunity that’s there to be with the Lord and talk to Him. Whether we’re taking a walk or doing our activities, we can always spend that time with God. Another way that is in the Scriptures that it tells us about how to pray, we pray kneeling down on the face east to Jerusalem.
We can see that Daniel did this three times a day. He kneeled down and faced over Jerusalem and prayed to God. That’s the time that he spent with God.
That’s the time that he gave himself away to God. So how are we giving ourselves away to the Lord? How do we measure that time that we’re having on earth? Today in age, the technology and everything that’s going on in this age wants to just grab our time. It wants to steal our time.
In Ephesians 5, 16 it says, To make a good use of our time because the days are evil. To commit your work to the Lord and your plan will be established. It also tells us in Proverbs 16, 3, walking wisdom, making the best use of our time.
In Colossians 4, 5 and Proverbs 6, 10, 11, it tells us that we need to work. So one of the things that we’re going to be doing in this world is working. But while we’re working, we can still spend time with God.
Think about his commandments. Think about how he loves us. Speak to other people about Yeshua and his salvation and his love.
In Ecclesiastes 3, 1 to 15, I’m not going to read all of it, but it says, For everything, there’s a season, a right time for everything, intention of under the heaven. A time to be born. A time to die.
A time to plant. A time to uproot. A time to peel.
A time to heal. A time to tear down. A time to build.
A time to weep. And a time to laugh. A time to mourn.
And a time to dance. A time to throw stones. And a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace. And a time to refrain. A time to search.
And a time to give up. A time to peek. And a time to discard.
A time to tear. And a time to sow. A time to keep silent.
And a time to speak. A time to love. And a time to hate.
A time to war. And a time for peace. And it tells us about our time here on Earth.
And how are we giving ourselves away to God. How would you say if you were to give a percentage of your time today to God, what percentage would you give yourself? 10%? 20%? 50%? 9%? What’s the percentage that you would test yourself and you would rank yourself as? Are you giving only yourself 50% of the time that you spend with God? We have to be honest with ourselves and see really truly what is it that we’re spending our time with. When we read the scriptures and one day time is going to be no more for us.
Our time is going to be over. It’s going to be finished. And I heard someone say that sometimes when you go to a person’s memorial or funeral and if nobody, hardly anybody is there or some very small people are there meaning that that person probably didn’t accomplish anything or didn’t do anything and you can see other people that you go to their memorials or you go to their funerals and there’s a lot of people there.
Is that because they did something for society? Did they do something for God? That’s the question. Did they spend time with God? Were they there with God? We know that there was the last week I think that they had this um a funeral of this person I think it was the commander or whoever he was for my rank that he was killed and people went to the funeral and this person is an evil person and there was a lot of people there. A lot of people attended this funeral.
So you cannot say that okay because there’s a lot of people at your funeral or your memorial that you know you did something for God versus somebody and not somebody people that didn’t even have a memorial didn’t even have a service but they were for God they knew God, they spent their time with God and we can give an example of somebody very important that did a lot for God and a lot of people did not go to his funeral or his memorial. When you think about Yeshua Yeshua died for us how many people came to his service? Did he even have a service? He didn’t even have a service memorial We know that people came and they robbed him they took him down from the tree and they took him to the place to be buried and he was put in the place probably anointed by his mother you can count the amount of people that probably was there he didn’t have a big memorial service or a big funeral service but he did something that nobody had ever ever would do and he died for us and he gave us life so he’s he’s not what we do that just represent the outside of us a lot of people want to see the outside of us and because they see the outside they see big things or they see little things or whatever they want to assume things about life so what is the bottom line or bottom thing about our time and being with the Lord God tells us what is it that he wants us to do in this world in Deuteronomy 30 16 he tells us in that I am ordering you today to love Adonai your God to follow his ways and to obey his commandments regulations and rulings and if you go lower to the other part of it he tells you loving Adonai your God paying attention to him to what he says and clinging to him is the purpose of your life and this will depend the time that you will be living on the land that God has given to your ancestors the ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob so we have a purpose in our lives our purpose is to love God and Yeshua says if you love me you will obey my commandments our purpose is to do his commandments our purpose is to cling to God there is another place where it talks about a lot of people may say what am I doing here what is the purpose of being a human being and when we go to Ecclesiastes 12 13-14 it tells us Solomon after all the investigation that he did all the things that he did he been having all the wisdom all the riches of this world he came out to a conclusion here it is in Ecclesiastes 12-14 here is the final conclusion now that you have heard everything fear God and keep my commandments this is what being a human being is all about are we giving ourselves away to God clinging to him loving him following his commandments his rulings and his regulations are we giving ourselves away to other people being servants instead of trying to rule over people Yeshua came to be a servant and we should be like he is like he was doing here on this earth being servants to other people servants to our family members, servants to the people that are out there loving them clinging to them he doesn’t want us to be fighting, he doesn’t want us to be arguing he wants us to be in connection with him so let’s think about the time that we spend with God and let’s process our timing and learn about his commandments seriously get into your scriptures and learn all the commandments that he talks to us about he these will change our lives I think it’s in John 15 that he was talking to the Judeans and oh I think it’s John 8 he was talking to the Judeans and he was saying to them if you are truly my disciples you will obey my commandments you will know the truth and the truth will set you free I think it’s John 8 and in the bottom after you read a little bit more we read about Yeshua saying that the father and I are one now we can be one and united with the Messiah but in order for them to do that we need to give ourselves away from all the clutters of the things that are happening in this world and spend that time with him God Lord we just want to say thank you Lord thank you for your love thank you for your patience in our lives thank you for supplying all our needs thank you for cleansing us and renewing our minds and making us a new creature in you thank you for your your Holy Spirit that continues to guide us and continues to teach us help us Lord to set us time aside to be with you the time aside to learn more about your commandments the time aside to cling to you to be close to you to love you
