The Store

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Romans 5:8-11

Jesus died for your bad parts. 

Christ didn’t die for you and love you because you were good and valuable, He died for you because you were corrupted and even your “good” parts needed to be redeemed. No one goes into a grocery store, looks for the rotten fruit and says those are the ones I want to buy. But Jesus came into your grocery store and decided to buy the rotten fruit. Not only that, but He buys your whole grocery store. He didn’t buy your store because it had good produce; He bought your store because you had rotten fruit you couldn’t get rid of. And He bought all of you, your rotten fruit,  your not so rotten fruit, and your store that houses all your fruit. As the owner of your store, God slowly rearranges your store and changes what merchandise you sell. He throws away the rotten fruit and replaces your produce with spiritual fruit that feeds both body and spirit. He makes your store profitable by both changing what produce you have to offer and by rebranding and redesigning your store inside and out. While Jesus bought and redeemed the merchandise of your store, He purchased your entire store, and He values your store higher than any of the merchandise you have inside. As your owner, He doesn’t just rearrange the things inside of you, He rearranges you.

Love someone, not the things of someone. 

If you are a grocery store, God didn’t just love the items in your store, He loved you and bought you so that you and all that is within you are both His. You are a unique store, and yet you are in a community with a hardware store, a bookstore, a music store, etc. Your store’s purpose is not to benefit any particular store, even your own store. Your store’s purpose is to benefit the owner of the store who also owns other stores in your community. Stores can and should cross advertise for other stores in the community owned by the same owner because the other stores are bringing profit to the same owner. A store doesn’t consider how it can hoard profits to itself, all profits go to the owner. Stores owned by the same owner work together to bring the owner profit. Your store should advertise other stores owned by the same owner, but you shouldn't cross advertise for stores owned by someone else. While your store may have some of the same products as another store, your store does not seek to acquire the merchandise of another store. As you let God take management control of your store, He will continue to work on you until you become the store He wants you to be. If God demonstrated His love for you by buying you even when you had spoiled goods in your store, He surely will continue to work on you since you are His. And since you are His, He will fill you with His life.