Day 2525 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Philippians 2:4 NIV

We've been talking about how we so easily become focused on trying to earn our faith. We think that we have to work for God's love because this idea that He just freely gives it to us seems way too good to be true. But in thinking that we have to earn His mercy we end up becoming so focused on ourselves that we start forgetting that there's far more to all of this than just us.

You see, God doesn't call us to wrap ourselves up in ourselves. He doesn't call us to tune out the world around us so that we can better focus on perfecting every aspect of our lives. He asks us to go into all the world and share this incredible news with the people around us. He asks us to share His light and His love with others so that we all grow and benefit from it. But that's all but impossible to do when we're busy thinking about us and everything we think we need to do to earn what's already been given.

Instead of making our lives all about us and trying to satisfy this desire to earn something so that we gain some kind of selfish glory, maybe we should do what this verse is telling us instead. Maybe we should turn our focus outward. Maybe we should look for chances to help other people improve their lives rather than just worrying about making ours better. Maybe if we spent a little more time trying to help others and a little less thinking about ourselves we may just end up making a difference.

One of the biggest things that we miss when we're completely consumed in ourselves is the fact that so many around us are hurting. They're lost. They're scared. They're losing hope. They're barely hanging on to whatever crumbs we accidentally drop along the way as we pass them by on the road to bettering ourselves. Shouldn't be that way. If we only focus on ourselves then we're the only ones who gain anything. That's clearly not the way Christ laid out for us to follow.

Oddly enough, what we'll find when we turn our attention outward and put our time into helping others is that we end up growing from it too. We end up finding this love and kindness inside that we don't get to notice when we're only living for us. We find a joy and a compassion that we never experienced before. We find the value and importance of living as God's servants rather than living to serve ourselves.

Friends, we can spend our entire lives trying to perfect every step we take so that we can approach God's throne with this feeling that we did enough to earn a ticket to Heaven or we can live our lives trying to ensure that every single person has a chance to come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior so that we all have a chance at the gift of salvation. The first choice will maybe make us better in some way. But the second is the only one that comes anywhere close to the example that we have in Jesus.

Maybe the best way to sum it up is what Christ Himself tells us in Matthew 25:40, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Life has never and will never be about us or our desire to measure up and earn God's grace. It's about living beyond ourselves, sharing His love with others, and working to help everyone grow and improve, not just us. After all, we have the light of Christ living inside of us. And sharing that light doesn’t leave us with less, it just gives others more so that we all get to experience it!

#LeaveNoSoulUntold

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 2016 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Image
Matthew 6:20 NIV Yesterday I posed a very big question: have you ever thought about the vastness of eternity? I'm just afraid that so many people are living for these lives only, and that's going to lead to quite a shock when we reach the end of this leg of the trip only to find that something else really does come next. So I just want to encourage everyone to take today's verse to heart. This is one that my mom likes to quote and share quite often. And it's really a very important lesson that everyone needs to learn and always keep in mind. While we're surrounded by all kinds of messages, things, wants, and desires, we need to always keep our priorities in line. We can't afford to let ourselves become distracted by all the wares that our world offers up. The thing that I think we've fallen for is this idea of value. We're told that all this worldly stuff is highly valuable. Now if that's the case, then we automatically think that having it or going
Read more

Day 2018 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Image
Luke 6:27 NIV I was presented the chance earlier today to experience one of those amazing opportunities to realize that I'd been wrong. You see my family and I had bought some Bibles to send to a couple of people, and we just hadn't gotten around to sending them yet. Since the time that we bought them, we kind of had this weird and unfortunate falling out of sorts with one of them. And I'm embarrassed to admit that it had me second guessing whether or not to send the gift.  Seeing as how this difference of opinion has gone, I had gotten it in my mind that I didn't want to send something to someone only for them to throw it away. But all along, my mom has been there saying no, we need to send it anyway. And today, we finally got them boxed up and sent out. But if anything, I may have ended up getting the biggest gift out of everyone involved. We don't get to decide who is worthy of our kindness. We don't get to pick and choose who we're going to do good thing
Read more

Day 3362 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Image
Matthew 15:8 NIV It seems as though perhaps the distance from our heads to our hearts is, at times at least, much the same as the separation we so often feel between here and hope. For though our lips are geographically close to the hearts which pound inside a craving for more than we can say we need, say we know, yet sadly despite their being so near to our knowing what we need, we find that our mouths and our hearts are existing as if in two foreign places. Because while our heads may hold lips that let on that we know we need Heaven's hope as having come in Christ, our hearts remain among the ultimate deceivers as they lead us daily back into the brink wherein we break away all over again into disbelief as designed inside a heart’s desires kindling fires forsaking that faith which yearns only for a fellowship with He who is everything we could ever need. Indeed, it seems to matter not what our tongues here confess as our hearts head us always into following the path our mouths c
Read more