In order to succeed in transforming our lives we need less "self" in our lives. Sometimes it's all about me (is it all about you, too?). I am:
- Self-centred
- Selfish
- Self-absorbed
- Self-assured
- Self-willed
- Self-important
- Self-indulgent
Satan is rather good at making us focus on ourselves – he is both capable of telling us that we deserve to treat ourselves to something, and moments later to make us feel worthless and shameful for what we have done. He would have us believe that God doesn't exist, that God doesn't love us because of what we have done wrong, that we have let God down because we started out well and then failed. He is always changing the goalposts!
But the answer is to focus on the truth.
- We are made in the image of God
- Our job is to be servant hearted disciples
- We are to place others before ourselves
- Our assurance comes from what God has done for us
- Our will is to do what God wants done
Consider this:
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:1-4 [NIV]
That's what makes a difference in the world – people flocked to Christ to hear him speak, because he was radically different from human nature and greedy celebrity.
Lord, help me to focus on you and put the needs of others ahead of myself. Make me more like Jesus every day. Amen.
Dave MacLellan
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