do not withhold...

Do not withhold...
words from a devotional read Tuesday...
continue echoing in my heart...

Spurgeon used the King James Version...
Keep not back...
but I went to the English Standard Version...
where I found the way He calls us to respond to the gift of faith...
woven into Isaiah 43...

Although this message was sent to the south, and referred to the seed of Israel, it may profitably be a summons to ourselves. Backward we are naturally to all good things, and it is a lesson of grace to learn to go forward in the ways of God...

... If you have talents keep not back from using them. Hoard not your wealth, waste not your time; let not your abilities rust or your influence be unused. Jesus kept not back, imitate Him by being foremost in self-denials and self-sacrifices.

---Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

And my question has been... my prayer...
What does it look like...? for me to not withhold...?

The opposite of withholding... pouring out...
I feel like I pour myself out here...
everyday... words written... vulnerability faced...

But I sense Him pressing me... to do more...
to reach out more broadly...

Be bolder in loving others...
connecting... sharing...
what I know of Him...

What does it look like...? for me to not withhold...? 

What about you...?
How are you pouring out...?
Or are you withholding a gift too...?

Feeling convicted... pressed... yet excited...
wondering what freedoms... will surely come...
with busting loose... pouring out...
no longer withholding...

Freely you have received, freely give.

Matthew 10:8

What depicts...? this pouring out...? bursting forth...?

Water... freely flowing... no restraint...

Hands... open wide... 

Seeds... bursting life... 

But still...

What does it look like for me...? to not withhold...?

Lord... I know longer want to withhold...

what You're doing in me...

I know longer want to withhold...

Your love from those in need...

I no longer want to withhold...

my love for You...