legitimate vs illegitimate business

What distinguishes a legitimate enterprise or business from an illegitimate one? 

Being ¹service driven vs. solely profit-driven.

There is nothing wrong with profit in itself, but when profit becomes the ²sole motive, serving others becomes irrelevant or secondary at best and usually leads to ⁴harming others. This is a disservice and the opposite of serving others.

When an enterprise is focused on ²serving others we are loving our neighbors and helping them flourish. The result is that the "consumer" ²benefits. 

We are dependent on certain things to not only survive but to flourish to our maximum capacity. To provide those things to honor of God and for the benefit of our fellow man or woman is to serve both God and humankind.

If we are diligent in serving others, it often results in our economic benefit as well, i.e. profit. We "win" by helping others "win." But serving others is and should always be our focus, regardless. 

As believers, this is carrying out the commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves i.e. treating others the way we would like to be treated. If we gain (profit) in this exercise, this is a good thing, not bad i.e. it is not exploiting our fellow man or the planet, as ⁵some assert, but the possible (though not automatic) fruit of serving them.  

The most successful enterprises are those that find a ¹legitimate ³need of others and meet it better than anyone else. The greater the need, the greater the service provided. The greater the service, the greater the opportunity for profit if we are diligent. 

For a discussion on sowing and reaping click here. 

For a discussion on socialism vs capitalism click here. 

For a discussion on doing things with excellence click here. 

For a discussion on whether the pursuit of money is ever legit click here.

For a discussion on what exactly money is click here. 

For a discussion on cryptocurrency, click here. 

For a discussion on giving as we have received, click here

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Footnotes:

¹The nature of the need is also vital in determining the legitimacy of the enterprise or service e.g. providing healthy food vs junk food is a legitimate endeavor. Providing a want such as junk food (or pornography, or abortions etc) simply because there is a demand for it is not. There may be large profits in these kinds of offers, but if an offer is contrary to God's design it is ultimately destructive and a disservice to others and humanity at large regardless of how great the demand or profit.

²Even when profit becomes the primary motive, serving others becomes secondary, which also ultimately leads to people's ⁴harm and the opposite of serving others.

Serving others is good for both the provider and the consumer. This is a "win-win" scenario. 

³We must distinguish between needs and wants. Needs are vital to our existence and flourishing. Wants, no matter how great, are merely what we desire but will not result in our perishing if we can't acquire them i.e. they are not essential to our existence but may only be for greater convenience and comfort versus greater fruitfulness i.e. productivity. 

We are called to be productive (fruitful). Anything that enables us to do so is legitimate. Helping others be more efficient so they have more time to be more productive is a legitimate endeavor. 

This is our initial mandate in the Old Testament:

‭‭Genesis 1:28-30 

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 

This is repeated in the New Testament: 

‭‭John 15:5...

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing... 

 

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples...

 

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, - regarding advancing God's rule (kingdom) of love - he may give it to you. 

⁴Such as using corn syrup in foods as a sweetener because it is cheaper and adds more to the bottom line even though it's harmful to us.

⁵Ayn Rand asserted capitalism and altruism are opposites and do not mix i.e. in a true free market system we can not benefit (win) by helping others benefit (win). 

Click here for a 2-minute video of her explaining worldview. 

However, as an atheist, she didn't understand the dynamic of being empowered to love others when we know we are fully loved. 

She interpreted altruism as a giving away of our dignity - or others taking it from us - and not an expression of the dignity we derive from God, the eternal overflowing fountain of love. She saw altruism only as others taking from us by force vs our freely, gladly, and willingly giving to others out of our fullness of receiving all things from our Creator. A subtle but vital distinction. 

This distinguishes God's Kingdom from communism. This also reveals how the progressive side of the church is unwittingly sympathetic to communism, which is vastly different from advancing God's kingdom by loving our neighbor. 

Givers vs takers

For a discussion on how we are designed to be givers and not takers click here.

When service is our primary focus - but profit is also desired

(though not primary) - this puts innovation front and center. It causes us to continually look for creative ways to meet the unmet needs of our fellow humans and how to also generate the necessary funding to continue to do so. 

Often, but not always, the copycats of legitimate and successful innovation are driven purely by profit, not necessarily how to better serve humanity. 

Exchanging energy via currency?

Currency is a recognized media of value (i.e. everyone agrees on its value) that we exchange our labor/energy for (just think electrical current i.e. Current-cy). Because of this agreement everyone is willing to accept it in exchange for their labor.

We expend energy through labor to create things (or provide direct services to others) that people want or need.

We are given currency (portable, transferable, stored labor/energy) in exchange for that labor, which we can then use to acquire goods and services others labor to produce; goods and services we provide or produce that others need or want but do not have the time, skills, or interest to directly produce or labor for. 

As a society, we can more easily benefit mutually from the skills, talent, and labor (and production) of an almost unlimited number of others without having to barter by using a universally accepted ¹medium of exchange - of portable and transferable energy (i.e.currency) - 

For example, if I am a dentist and you do landscaping, I can provide dental work for you in exchange for landscaping. This works fine but only if I need landscaping and you need dental work, i.e. barter is limited to the specific things we EACH offer or need at the time that we need it.

A currency, however, is a universally accepted media of transferring your and my labor/energy. This means everybody will accept it as payment for their labor/energy and also offer it to others for the goods or services their labor/energy produces. So the use of currency is not limited to any one particular service - such as dental work - or product needed, but is unlimited in how it can be transferred and used. 

When we give currency to another, we give transportable/transferable energy/labor through a media of exchange or currency the other party agrees to accept from us. This is a mutually beneficial transaction and relationship, i.e. what some call a "win-win" scenario. 

Our energy is expended and exchanged for transportable/ transferable currency, which they in turn can exchange for goods and services created by the labor/energy of others, which they can also convert to currency.

Currency is simply a universally accepted, portable, and easily transferable media of exchanging our energy/labor (and the fruits of it) with each other whenever and wherever we need to.

Who is in control?

Here's the part most don't understand. If a central authority, such as a government, issues and therefore controls the currency (money) - such as our current fiat currency or the proposed ³CBDC - this in effect is a means of controlling the people who labor for it. 

If no Central authority is necessary to verify the value of a currency but its verification is distributed evenly through a decentralized network that no one controls (or you could say the laborers "control" together via a network) then a central authority is no longer needed. 

But most importantly, central control is no longer possible. The verification of the value of the currency is now in the hands of "we the people" and not with any single central institution or person.

What about profit? Is it good or bad?

Legitimate profit is merely surplus energy created through innovation, efficiency, and hard work. 

Innovation occurs when the laborer finds an area of demand/need/want through their ingenuity/creativity and supplies that want or need more efficiently than others (or exclusively before anyone else does).  

The basic engine that drives commerce is supply and demand. The laborer/innovator supplies what others need, want, or demand. 

Commerce is nothing more than the exchange of goods and services - through currency - that are needed and desired by others.

To provide goods and services that are needed or wanted is not taking advantage of people but actually serving them. It is treating them with value/care. In short, productivity does not necessarily involve greed. It can be driven by a desire to serve others - to treat them as we wish to be treated; to love our neighbors as ourselves. In so doing, we are carrying out the 2nd greatest commandment in the Bible. 

When profit is generated through deception or abuse of resources, this is not a natural or inherent part of profit-making but the abuse of it. There is nothing inherently wrong with profit or making it (i.e. efficiently, diligently, and creativity meeting the wants/needs of consumers better than other competitors/ providers) but only the abuse of it. 

Often, legitimate profit-making and abuse of it are mixed together as if they are one and the same. They are not. To shut down profit-making because it is abused is not the solution to the actual abuse. It would be equivalent to docking a sailboat, which is more efficient than using a row boat because the sailboat captain is always drunk and constantly wrecking the ship, causing harm or damage to others. The sailboat is not the problem, the captain steering the boat is.

Any economic system or endeavor can be (and often is) corrupted and abused simply because humanity is broken, i.e. the problem is not necessarily the means of doing commerce. We must separate and distinguish the mechanism from the abuse of it. 

All systems are subject to abuse, not necessarily because this is inherent within the system, but because of human nature's inclination to take advantage of others solely for their own benefit, i.e. selfishness vs service.

Some systems are more conducive to abuse than others. Systems that have centralized power (such as ²socialism and communism) tend to be abused most because of the selfish inclination of humanity. As the saying goes, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

If you put the control of commerce in the hands of a centralized authority, abuse inevitably occurs because of our inherent inclination to selfishishness. The more power and control someone has - and the fewer there are who have it - the more likely this abuse occurs. 

This is why our system of government was set up with a separation of powers and various checks and balances. You could say power within our system is decentralized. The founders understood the corruption of centralized power firsthand through tyrannical British rule.  This resulted in the action and concern in the American colonies of "taxation without representation."

Large profits are not necessarily the result of this corruption but may simply be the fruit of greater energy, efficiency, and innovation (creativity) than others i.e. not necessarily or automatically the fruit of exploiting the consumer. 

To say it simply, the bigger and the better the job you do the more you are rewarded. Great profit can simply be that you have made a larger number of people happier by providing what they want or need better - more efficiently and less expensive- than anyone else.

The danger of centralized control.

When you can devalue the currency by creating additional currency out of thin air, you are in effect unknowingly (to the users of the currency) taking (stealing) people's energy to pad your own pocket by diluting the value of the currency others labored for e.g. to double the money supply is the equivalent of doubling the number of hours of labor required to generate the same earnings. Without an honest currency/money system, you have legalized theft. 

And as long as there are those allowed to steal from you without your knowledge and go unchecked, they will continue to do so by whatever means possible (through deception or keeping others in the dark, thereby controlling the narrative via information outlets on how money works) in order to maintain power and control over others, i.e. over our labor/energy/time etc. 

This is why the Federal Reserve system must be eliminated. It is taking the fruits of our labor/energy through deception and using it to advance the agenda of those who control the system - which is not necessarily or usually the consumers agenda. This is not only taking advantage of the producer/worker but increasing their control over others i.e. You and I. 

The media of exchange that best provides honest money is cryptocurrency. For a discussion on why click here.
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¹One of the oldest and most common media of exchange has been gold and silver. Originally in America, we used gold and silver coins (A "dollar" was an ounce of silver. A quarter was a quarter ounce and a dime was 1/10 an ounce). The paper dollar was backed by gold or silver and could be turned in for the amount of gold or silver the "bill" designated i.e.  5 "dollar bill" or 10 dollars or a 100 etc. Eventually, we went to paper certificates of deposit that were backed by silver. Now it is merely currency by fiat (law) and backed by nothing (in fact our present currency is debt based). We use it because it is required by law i.e. it is legal tender, also known as fiat (money by degree or law).  

This doesn't mean we can not use other forms of exchange if we mutually agree. That is up to the buyer and seller of goods or services. We are free to pay each other with whatever we agree to. This means you only have to use "legal tender" to pay the government, i.e. taxes. And they will only pay you with it and not some other currency such as Euros, Yen, British pounds, or a ³true decentralized cryptocurrency, etc. 

A currency can be any universally recognized media. Because of the devaluation of the paper dollar through excess spending and printing more to cover the nation's increasing debt, more are turning to privately created digital currency known as cryptocurrency. ³True cryptocurrency has a limited number of coins created, resulting in them increasing in value against fiat currency through supply and demand, as their use becomes more widely accepted. A set number of coins does not allow them to be devalued (diluted) by constantly creating additional new coins (like we do now with paper money and every other "developed" country using fiat currency).

²those who promote such systems pretend benevolence (and maybe even naively believe it's more fair) when in fact they seek power and control (whether consciously or not… they argue someone has to run the show to prevent fraud.  Ironic when you consider the whole current fiat money system is legalized theft).

The appeal to the consumer is I'm promised I'll be cared for regardless of whether I work for it or not, by those who promote (and control) distribution. This promise is the primary way they keep us in the system and under their control. 

³CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) is not decentralized or has a set number of "coins" issued. It is therefore not true cryptocurrency. I would avoid it at all costs. There is a clear indication it will actually increase the central authorities' control over every part of our lives.

For a further discussion on the difference between controlled CBDC and true cryptocurrency click here.

For a further discussion on the difference between socialism and capitalism, click here.

For further discussion on the difference between a legitimate and illegitimate endeavor or business click here.

If interested in acquiring precious medals at 12 to 17% below standard dealers' cost click here.

To take advantage of the rapidly growing cryptocurrency market email us at bigdeal70@pm.me 

We are part of a rapidly expanding cryptocurrency exchange that is making it easier to interface our current fiat system with truly decentralized cryptocurrency. 

Whoever is not with me is against me

Every decision we make is a choice between doing something ¹God's way or my way - doing things to advance God's agenda (kingdom) or mine.  

Christ said it this way, "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." 

There appears to be no in-between. This sounds pretty harsh until we dig in a little more.

Ultimately, the key underlying difference between God's way and ours is who do we depend on or trust ²more in our choices and the actions we take - God or ourselves?

 
Choosing our way feels natural and normal, i.e. it's our default setting. It's not necessarily conscious because it's all we know. It seems harmless and doesn't feel like a choice against God. 

But if we are designed to know and love God with all we are and have and in turn put Him on display in all we say and do - thereby making Him known - but do not, are we not rebels and enemies of God? Do all things for the glory of God, love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and be holy because God is holy is not hyperbole or casual statements. It is who God made us to be.

If God is the source of life, love, and all things, to take and use what God has created to advance our own designs and purposes without consideration of God's ³designs and purposes in giving us all things is an act of rebellion against God. It's not that God is a die-hard and doesn't want us to enjoy life. It is because he is life and there is no true and lasting joy apart from Him. 

Any joy we experience in life that is not in, by, or through Him is temporary. When we act to the contrary, our actions (or lack of action to honor Him) are saying to God - and anyone who knows and observes us - that God is irrelevant. When in fact He is just the opposite i.e. He is the most relevant and important being of all. To not act accordingly not only dishonors God for who He is, but it is living a lie that harms us and those we interact with. 

The reality is God is the most important being of all. Without Him, there would be nothing else i.e. all we are and have is from His hand.

Paul said it this way, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." ‭‭Rom‬ ‭11:36‬ ‭

If we bristle at this, it only confirms how subtle and deep our rebellion runs.

But when we stop and consider our life, most give little to no thought as to why God gives us all that we have - i.e. we rarely consider what part God plays in why He does. Instead we should be asking why He gives us life, breath, air to breathe, health, our abilities (physical, mental, athletic, artistic etc.), food, sunlight, rain, sight, taste, smell, hearing, natural resources, etc. and how we can use what he provides to give Him rightful honor and thanks. 

Do you thank Him for all you are and have. If not, is this not an indication of rebellion towards Him who gives us all things?

This would be like our child misusing the things that we as parents have labored to acquire and provide, with little or no regard by them of our wishes as the parent. This can result in the child's harm and/or harm to others and often does (like when a child uses and wrecks their parent's car injuring themselves or others).

It's not that a loving parent doesn't want their child to enjoy and use what they provide. A loving parent loves their child and wants them to feel their love. They want what's best for them.   

But a loving parent also does not want their child to be ⁴harmed. And as a parent with much more life experience (i.e. a better understanding of good and evil if you will), they know us better than we do and how to better use and benefit from what they provide. 

With our heavenly parent, it is far more significant! He knows better than we do what is best for us. He is what is best because all things are by, though, for Him, which is also our greatest joy.

No matter how little we consider God as we go about our lives, the reality is all that we are and have not only comes from God but is maintained by him. Without God, nothing would be, including ourselves, with all the unique abilities we were born with. In reality we hate to acknowledge this. It grates against every fiber of our being because we do not want to be accountable to an all Supreme Being for our choices and actions. 

Considering what God wants is not only the right thing to do but is best for us and others. Who would know what is best for us and how to use what God provides better than Himself? Us!?! Unless, of course, you don't trust Him. And isn't that precisely the issue, our distrust?

We should always seek to use what he provides as He desires and directs. Not because he needs to be in charge (He already is) but because he knows what is best and wants that best for us.

For a discussion on why God allows evil click here and here.

For a discussion on why God loves rebels click here

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¹This was the essence of the choice presented to Adam (primarily) and Eve on whether to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

²And what exactly is it that we should trust? That God not only knows what is best but desires what is best for us. And what He desires He can fully accomplish, i.e. He's all-powerful. In short, we trust that God loves us and knows what is best better than we do and perfectly able to bring all this about.

³And what exactly are those designs? For us - His image bearers - to be the caretakers of His creation, and be fruitful and multiply. 

Why? So that we can enter into and partake of the good gifts of God and extend them to others. Our extending them to others enables us to more fully partake of who God is and designed us to be for His honor i.e. glory.

Why? Because God loves us and his creation and wants us to experience the joy of being in a relationship of love with Him like He has experienced from all eternity past between the Father and Son, in, through, and by the Spirit. i.e. He desires we partake of the joy and delight of receiving and giving love in the same way He does. 

For a fuller discussion on the above, click here. 

All that we are and have is designed and intended to aid us in participating in and experiencing the eternal joy and bliss between the Father and His Son in, through, and by the Spirit. We, however are rebellious creatures who use God's creation to do just the opposite, i.e. to attempt to be independent of God. If we persist He honors our choice along with the consequences. 

⁴This does not mean God will not allow us to experience short-term pain. He often does so we might experience long-term gain. 

Broken yet fully loved

We are far more ¹broken than we are willing to admit but also far more loved than we can ever imagine or hope for - or are usually willing to believe.

Why do we struggle to believe that we are both broken and fully loved at the same time?

We fear if someone knew ²all our faults they would reject us and no longer love us. Why? Because admitting to or being seen with all our flaws usually results in rejection. 

We so greatly long to be fully and deeply loved, we fear ³losing it if we ever find it. We believe it's better to never be loved than to powerfully experience love and lose it.

The more we know we are loved - regardless of our flaws - the more we can admit ("own") them - not only to the one who loves us but to ourselves as well. 

Why does love free us? We are no longer concerned that admitting our brokenness will result in rejection. We know we are loved regardless of how broken we are. 

Love is the fuel of growth and change. Why?

Admitting our faults to ourselves and others is vital to our maturing. 

We can't and won't fix something if we don't think it's broken. And we can't admit our brokenness until we know we will not be rejected for it. Once we feel safe to admit our brokenness, we can be more honest with ourselves (and others) about our shortcomings.

We can admit our faults only to the extent we know we are loved despite them.

When we are loved in ⁴this way we desire to bring joy and honor to the only One who loves us this way. We delight in doing all we can to honor them. When this is for God, He in turn feels honored to be in a relationship with us.

For a discussion on loving yourself click here and here.

For a discussion on what it means to be broken click here. 

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¹We are not broken in the sense that we no longer have natural abilities, talents, or resources but in how we use these, i.e. do we use them to self-comfort instead of bringing comfort to others as we were *designed to?

Self-comforting is so common it is considered normal, not broken. We not only embrace it but applaud others who do this as well. "Loving ourselves" has become a cultural mantra in the West when it is actually the primary evidence and expression of brokenness. 

Our need to love ourselves is only because we have rejected God, the very source of love. How? Whenever we look to or go to something other than God for love, we are telling God we can do better at finding and experiencing love on our own than we can from Him, when in fact only God is the source of love, life, and all things. 

*We are in God's image, designed to be like God, which is to be other-focused - i.e. to give, not take. The more we give, the more we are like God, and the more we partake of and experience Him, i.e. experience love flowing to and through us to others.

We justify getting or taking because we think it will make us happy, more complete, and whole. Short-term it may, but the ultimate solution to our need for love is not taking it but receiving it from the Source, which enables us to pass it on to others. 

God is primarily what we need, but we refuse to receive what he offers, i.e. His infinite affections offered to us in and through His Son Jesus.

We reach the highest level of our design - God's likeness - when we give. But not to get but simply for the joy of seeing others receive life through us. And we can only give as God does when we are receiving love from the One who is the ultimate source of love, God himself. 

²This is what makes our family of origin so unique and significant. No one sees our flaws and strengths as much or as well as family. If we come from a loving family, this is where we feel safest... Or "more at home" to use a common expression. If we come from an unloving family, this is why for some thoughts of family are most painful. And also why we may fear letting others see us the way we truly are. 

³This approach believes you can't lose what you never had to begin with.

There is a saying that it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

But what if you never love again? All you have is the painful memory of not having something (love) you still need and long for. Is this not the essence of hell itself? I'm not suggesting we avoid love for fear of never experiencing it again. I am saying no human can love us in the way we are designed for, i.e. perfectly and continuously loved, without interruption. Only God is perfect, perpetual, and endless love. 

⁴God alone consistently loves us in this way. He alone is perfect and infinite love.

God wants us to want Him, not force us to

God wants us to pursue Him only if we want to. God never forces us to but helps us see the importance and necessity of our pursuit through our mistakes, failures, struggles, and pain, as well as our successes. 

Whenever we pursue things other than (or outside of) God, we find they leave us empty and create problems. 

They also causes us to feel distant from God, resulting in us missing and longing for more of his presence. This drives us to return and pursue Him more faithfully so we might experience him and his infinite love again more fully. 

As we partake of his presence, we long for it more and when it's absent, this increases our desire to avoid whatever alienates us from Him and creates a sense of His absence.

The saying goes that you can lead a horse to water but cannot make it drink. While God never forces us to pursue him He knows the best way to help us see the need for him. To continue with the analogy, He doesn't make us drink but he does know how to salt our oats. 

We may not always know why we suffer or the specific benefit we will gain from it at that time - i.e. if we will ever see any immediate or long term circumstantial benefit, or gain anything at all in this life - but we know the general reason is so we might draw closer to and partake of Him more and who He is as the source of life, love, and all things. This may or may not result in a change of circumstances but it always results in a change of disposition. It brings us to a place of greater joy, contentment, and rest in Him.

We are told that "eye has not yet seen or ear yet heard..." what God has for us in eternity and what exactly being fully glorified and like Christ will look like. But this may be the primary reason we are given to encourage us ¹in our struggles i.e. to make us more Christlike. If and when we trust God, knowing this is sufficient.

The rub is what we gain eternally is often not obvious and has no immediate benefit to us now but a gain we have to accept by faith.    To us an analogy by Tim Keller, we don't have a video explanation of the value we receive from our struggles but an audio one. It is one we are given by words (promises) not by sight - at least not yet. Words we must believe but promises we have not actually seen firsthand with their own eyes or fully experienced. It is this very faith God is seeking to stretch and increase. So we do have some idea -- audio -- why we should remain faithful in our pursue of God but not the complete idea - video i.e. we are not yet face-to-face with Jesus.

Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." - John 20:29

It is our believing while not seeing that God is looking to stretch and expand. 

¹Actually there is another very significant reason for our suffering. It is so we will understand Christ's suffering on our behalf more fully.  The more we understand his suffering -- which usually doesn't occur until we go through our own -- the more we see His love and in turn grow in our love for him and what he did for us. For a further discussion on this click here. 

Another reason may simply be that we become more compassionate for the suffering of others which enables us to better love our neighbor as ourselves. This too is a present benefit.

But note, none of these benefits necessarily improve our circumstances but they do give us hope and enable us to persevere in our challenges with joy. 

What reveals our heart most

If we want to know the true condition of our heart two things reveal it better than anything; ¹great adversity and great success. 

Great adversity either humbles us or embitters us. Great success either makes us proud or grateful.

When you go through great adversity, how do you respond? Do you get angry and blame others or shake your fist at God? Or do you step back and reflect on how this too comes from God's hand for your good and seek to respond in a way that honors Him?

When you have a really good day (or season) where everything lines up circumstantially and everything you touch turns to gold, how do you respond? Do you start feeling and thinking that you are better than others or are you humbled that God has been good to you and cleared your path?

If you are inclined to feel anger during adversity or pride from success, what is the solution? It is actually the same for both; God's love. As we trust more and more in God's love and allow it to seep deep into our souls - whether in success or struggle - we are freed from trying to get love or affirmation elsewhere. We are not drawn away from God by the praise of men, because God's embrace means far more. 

We also question God's good intentions behind our hardships less. As our trust in God matures, we recognize more and more that the struggles and blessings of life are only from his wise and gracious hand. 

Great success or great suffering may darken our hearts or make us wiser and more humble, but they will never leave us where we were.

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¹what is the difference in these very different responses? Humility. Those who respond positively recognize all they are and have comes from their Creator. Those who don't, believe they are alone and must make life work on their own. No one is there to help them or cares about them more than they can or do.

The latter is a lonely path we are not designed to travel. We are created for relationship, but not just any relationship will do. Only one with the infinitely loving, wise, and all-powerful Creator,  who knows us better than we know ourselves. 

The essence of relationships

What is the essence of relationships?

All relationships consist of giving and receiving love (value).

However, different types of relationships occur in a variety of ways between various parties.

What makes them unique is the form or manner in which love and value are expressed or exchanged, i.e., what kind of relationship it is and who the persons with whom love and value are shared. 

Is it between God our Creator and His image bearers (you and I), husband and wife, parent and child, siblings, friends, extended family, business partners or associates, fellow believers, etc.?

Each kind of ¹relationship has unique characteristics that the others do not have - i.e., a unique way of showing love and value - while also the same, in that they all share love and value in some form with the other person or object of our love. 

For example, physical intimacy between a husband and wife is unique to that relationship. Love expressed in this way is only legitimately expressed between them and not others or other kinds of relationships.

Physical intimacy makes the marriage union the ²most complete human relationship. Marriage embodies the expression of giving and receiving love in all forms - friendship, companionship, partnership, and physical intimacy - within a single relationship.

Each kind of relationship is valuable and designed by God to reveal something about Him (and us) that the other types of relationships don't. The nature and vastness of God are too great to be fully displayed by any one kind of relationship alone.

How does God fit into all this? 

God himself is relationship as Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit, and the basis for all relationships. All relationships reflect something of who He is and what He is like.

Therefore, we find the most joy in relationships with persons other than God when we understand and recognize that ultimately they are all gifts from God designed to reveal something about who He is and what He's like, not only to us but to each other. This adds to and aids our understanding of God and helps us appreciate Him more. This also adds greater fullness and meaning to all ³secondary relationships outside of Him, i.e., they are expressions of His love for us.

The highest form of love (and therefore relationship) is God's love. Why? It is the only love that does not require love to be given in return. It is a kind of love that flows out of the fullness of who God is, not out of something needed or missing within God. It is unique and the highest kind of love. It is giving, never taking.

Because God ⁴is love, relationship for God is the "natural" - i.e. organic - outcome of who He is; a being of relationship between the Father and Son, in, by, and through the Spirit. 

This triune relationship has always been from all eternity past. There has never been a time when God was not in a relationship of giving and receiving love. 

God never requires our love ⁵in order to give us His. His love is overflowing and sacrificial, i.e., always giving (and receiving), never taking. And this is because He doesn't need our love, therefore neither requires it - at least not for His sake. 

One of the most well-known passages in scripture says, "God so loved the world he gave... " What (who) He gave is not something trivial. He gave the most valuable and significant "thing" He could give - the eternal Son of his infinite affection. 

God's love only and always gives and never takes. Not because God doesn't want or enjoy our love in return, He simply doesn't need it (though it is always welcomed and delightfully received when given by us).

Though we occasionally show sacrificial love ourselves - often in "fits and starts" - God always operates this way. He always operates out of fullness, never out of need. He is always overflowing in love and always has from all eternity past between the Father and Son in and through the Spirit, long before we ever came into the picture.

" ...For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich." - 2 Cor 8:9

" ...because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!" - Eph 1:4-5

"...God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. - Rom 5:8‭-‬10

For related discussions, the following links are offered:

Man...saint or sinner

Man's dilemma

God is relationship

AND

God is nonstop love beauty and glory

Is the wrath of God unfair? Click here.

Why are relationships important? Click here

The giving and receiving of glory/love click here.

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Footnotes:

¹Relationships are so much a necessary part of who we are that adults who choose to remain single will often have pets to be in a relationship with another being - even if only on a simple and limited level with a pet. While pets are wonderful gifts from God and provide a kind of companionship, they come nowhere near the level of a God-centered, vibrant, and healthy human relationship.

²Because of this form of love, marriage is the only relationship that produces offspring i.e. another bearer of God's image. This makes marriage the highest form of relationship - closest to the union of Father, Son, and Spirit - and why the fruit of its union - children - is sacred.

³The best marriage or best relationship between a child and parent or siblings is one that is exercised by the love and forgiveness of God.

⁴Love is central to or the core of God's being.

⁵The Father accepts and totally embraces Christ's love on our behalf i.e. as if it were our own love. 

God also poured out the consequences of our rejection of Him and His love onto Christ, as if Christ rejected the Father. 

All this is offered and given as a gift when we place our trust in Christ and what He did on our behalf. 

The only question is, do you believe and receive what Christ did for you? You will never experience the transforming benefit He offers to you otherwise.