How Much Are You Holding Back?

How Much Are You Holding Back


I recently wanted to do something big. See, I realized that I had been given certain talents and well, I wasn't using them hardly at all. I am a writer of music, poetry and prose. The way I have come in this world though I largely didn't share my talents. I allowed myself to think that I was unimportant, actually a nuisance. I would create and enjoy my talents in private. I was happy to be unseen and unheard. After much deliberation I decided to write a new album of material and not hold back in any way. I have written and recorded many albums but rarely do I promote them well, so they just sit on a shelf largely unheard. Thing is I was thinking too small. God calls us all to help him 24/7 and gives us the grace to overcome any hardships along the way. He doesn't want us to hold back in the slightest. Why? Have you ever been in a relationship and held yourself back? I have and I can tell you that those relationships either fail or are not very fruitful. Having been on this path with God for a bit know I realize that my marriage on blooms to its fullest when I hold nothing back from my wife and children. It can be difficult because my ego says, "You should do what you want and take what you need cause you deserve it", but love doesn't work well that way. The happiness and freedom that I now experience is a direct response from going all in. I love God with all my body, mind and soul. Doing so teaches me to not hold back from my wife in the slightest. I serve her with all my heart as Christ did with the Church. When I am wrong, I do not hide. I admit it, lovingly apologize and do my best to be the best husband to my wife, and so I have learned that I should make the most of my talents, blessings and belongings by writing a new album, but rather to go further and use all my talents to be the best Christian I can be 24/7. For that is why God has put me here, not just to write songs, poetry and prose, but to love God and all others God's way with every ounce of who I am. Will I fall short? Sometimes. Will I make mistakes? Yes, but just like a marathon runner I will get no where if I do not first walk to the door, and likewise I will not find eternal life in heaven if I don't start walking to God.


1We want you to know, brethren, about the grace of God which has been shown in the churches of Macedo'nia, 2for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of liberality on their part. 3For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, 4begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints -- 5and this, not as we expected, but first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. 6Accordingly we have urged Titus that as he had already made a beginning, he should also complete among you this gracious work. 7Now as you excel in everything -- in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in your love for us -- see that you excel in this gracious work also. 8I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

Psalms 146:2, 5-9
1Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! 4When his breath departs he returns to his earth; on that very day his plans perish. 5Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, 6who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith for ever; 7who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free; 8the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.

Matthew 5:43-48
43"You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.