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Check Your Selfishness at the Door
“A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Luke 6:40. When first reading this script I thought, “sweet, I got this in the bag yo!” Then I kept reading and even flipped back to good ol’ Dr. Luke as I recalled a few things (thanks Alan) to get some more insight. The more I read, the more I realized that maybe I haven’t been truly honest with myself or others. Here is my public confession; I am angry, hurt, and it is really difficult for me to forgive because of past transgressors. In all of these emotions of course it is hard to be Christ like-minded because I am so caught up on how I feel. It is God’s will for us to love the same as Christ loved us, as it was Christ’s love for us that we were saved. What a slap in the face it would be for us to not carry out the same love and attitude for others. As believers it is impossible for us to really understand why we were given such love when we do not deserve it. Do our enemies not deserve this same love? As believers are we better than them? Even though we don’t deserve such a reward? Self reflection: Put your pride aside and let go of the past (*planks) because it is clouding your vision of the future with Christ. Check your selfishness at the door and have a renewed attitude as that of Christ Jesus! Amen!
One of my favorite verses I’ve kept in the back of my head for a long time is this, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye’, when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Luke 6:42
Lauren, thanks for sharing. I really like the title. As if selfishness is a heavy overcoat that all of us are keeping ourselves wrapped up in. The temperature might be 100 deg., but we still keep our arms pulled tightly around our coat.
This verse makes me think of the people that believe they are God, or gods, or that they can become gods. But look, Jesus, who is God, didn’t consider equality with God as something that could be grasped. We decendents of Adam are so self-righteous, and so pompous in our views on spirituality. Humility has gone right out the door. Perhaps we, and I, would be better off checking our selfishness at the door, and putting on a new cloak of humility.
You are right we do have to check our selfishness at the door to be more like Christ. I did notice that selfishness wasn’t one of the spiritual gifts we have been looking at this week. I however am a selfish creature. God has changed that through the years but I still struggle everyday to not make it all about me. So my prayer today is that I can serve today like Christ humbly and quietly.
A constant prayer should be, “Lord, let me see things as you see them”. Because when I look at things, it is always in terms of how it affects me first. Then I will eventually get around to considering others. Selfishness is a tough one. I definitely need a coat today (13 degrees!), but maybe one of humility like Herb said.
I think one of the biggest obstacles I face everyday in my walk with Jesus is myself. I just can’t seem to get out of my own way fast enough.
Amen Lauren! You quoted a couple of my favorite passages of scripture in your writing. The call to be “Christ-like” is quite a lofty challenge for us humans. Wow, what an example He was for us to follow. It’s easy to set one’s mind and say, “I’m gonna really try to be Christ-like in my daily life”. But if you really want to do that it should require a hard and painful look at yourself. And not just once but all the time. Not just on a daily basis but all throughout the day. I like Ben’s prayer for us to see things as He sees them. I thank God for his never-ending love for us, Jesus for saving us and the Holy Spirit for being here with us now to help us with our daily struggle to be more Christ-like.
It’s common for our sinful natures to wrestle with the desire of serving only to make us “feel good,” or “feel important.” We are beings who want to be valued and we want to ultimately be happy about what we are doing in our lives. But if there is no Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in what we are doing, than we are selfish prigs, only wanting to edify our own spiritual awareness, and like Herb said, be our own God….which is VERY DANGEROUS.
Lord, bathe us in humility and FORGIVE us for the times it has been about us and NOT about you.
Lauren,
I had a difficult time with the key verse. However, when you referred to Luke 6:42, “Brother let me take that speck out of your eye,” a light went on. We all need to strive to be more Christ like and take a peek in the mirror once in a while.
Thank you all for your comments. Herb, thank you so much for touching on humility. I think that Jesus definitely walked with great humility. As humans we should walk with the same humility and understanding that we are not Gods ourselves. We cannot play God, answer every question, and we as humans cannot heal the broken.
Ben, thank you for your prayer! All too often I blind myself with my own vision and block my sight with my emotions. What a blessing it would be to see through our Lord’s eyes!
Penny, I think you touched on a great point as well, ‘quietly.’ Sometimes, maybe all the time (::points to myself::) it is hard for us to zip it when we should just sit, meditate, pray and LISTEN. I complain all the time because I always feel like other people can hear the Holy Spirit, and always wonder why I cannot. I think I talk too much, and dont listen enough!
Today I pray to be covered with multiple coats. A coat that covers MY eyes. A coat of humility. Annd most of all a coat to cover my mouth!
Thanks all!
LB
Just as Christ didn’t consider equality with God something to be grapsed, I don’t consider equality with Christ something to be grasped. Looking in the mirror and seeing all of my faults – both inward faults and outward faults – I appreciate even more Lauren’s reflection that we are training to be like our Teacher. This training has to be consistant and unwaivering…but so often I waiver.
Lauren! Thanks for sharing with us today. It’s exciting to see the Lord transform you my friend! I Love you! MEMOSAS!! he he
Before we dive into verses 5-7 Paul tells us in verse 4 that we should not look only at our own interests but also the interests of others. That’s so key for me to leaving selfishness at the door. The whole purpose of Jesus’ life was for others. If we are to imitate Christ and be trained by Him-THAT’S the way. Others! When put in a situation I should ask, How does this affect those around me? Does this have anything to even do with me?
There’s just so much packed into these verses I could write forever. A reminder to check our selfishness at the door is one we need every day!
It’s wondeful that this was today’s topic. Stories of selflessness acts are coming through the T.V. as I type. GODS PERFECT TIMING.
These few verses have lead to much argument and debate by theologians. The debate stems from Paul’s use of the Greek word kenoo, a word meaning emptying. So the question became, what did the eternal Son empty Himself of? Did He give up His deity, His self-awareness – the I AM or the absolute existence of God? Was Jesus fully human and fully God? A good explanation of this could be that Jesus did not remove anything from Himself, but demonstrated servanthood and became functionally subordinate to the Father during the incarnation. Jesus maintained His attributes so He was still divine and still full of glory, but He in humble obedience gave the use of those attributes over to the will of the Father.
The application for us is that because the eternal Son humbled Himself in this way, we should not consider anything in our personal lives beyond giving up. If Jesus was willing to obey the Father through His death on the cross, how could there be anything that He asks of us that we would disobey?
Something that I have learned this week – LISTEN. Hush up, be quiet, clear my mind and LISTEN. This is when I get clear advise from the Holy Spirit. I was telling my group this week that on Monday I was reading in my Bible and the phrase “The Bible is about you” kept running through my mind. I kept that phrase close to me through the day and it kept repeating. The Bible is about you – The Bible is your story – This is your story. I bounced that off my group and they were very supportive stating that it is true. The stories we read and the situations that happened, they happen to some of us as well. I can learn how to deal and hoe to come across to the other side.
The point being though, without stopping to clear my mind I would not have heard that.
I have trouble clearing my mind of all the things that are going on around me, to me, and to others. To not be able to clear that out and give God my full attention, that is selfish. To not give God the glory for all the wonderful things that he has brought into my life, that is selfish.
I pray that I can continue to hear and learn.
I love the coat analogy. Too bad a good many of us (including myself) treat it like a true coat check. Leave selfishness at the door Sunday morning, nodding and talking a good game while on the inside, but always remembering it pick it back up on the way out the door! So much so, that when I cross paths with need, I take a look down and I have that coat zipped up all the way to my neck! Stupid coat. I never liked that coat, but some days I forget it’s not the only one I own! We exchanged coats with Jesus when we received his grace. He wears that coat for us today… that stupid, ugly, selfish, polyester coat that stinks and makes us itch. I should start grabbing His coat on my way out the door and leaving mine to rot in the closet!
For Goodness sakes, I’m from the motherland; A coat of any kind would be nice in this weather!!!!!
Lauren I’m like you sometimes because I feel that I don’t deserve to be loved by Jesus the way he loves me. I think I need Jesus to be my shrink, so that I can sit on his couch and he can explain to me that although he died for me and continues to do wonderful things for me; he does it all with love and I shouldn’t feel guilty of being loved so much.
Lauran great observant. I my am self am new to Cumberland. I have visited many churches since moving to Georgia and what has struck me unique about Cumberland is the genuine live that the leaders have for you all. It’s not just a person who has been exalted to a high post in the church but even as they lead they are the greatest servants. For example the leaders of the children’s ministry. They provide such a great service and sacrifice being in Sunday worship so that parents could enjoy the sermon in peace or pastor Rob and his ministry to help the poor Or Our great senior pastor Alan who every Sunday gets to the church before everyone to just pray for the service and the needs of others. These are all great men and women of god but even in the position that god has placed them they serve and sacrifice every day. I think God wants us to humble our selves seven as christens and understand that the world is hurting and needs someone to love and serve it with the heart of Christ. As christen we are not to be full our selves but we are called to serve one another as Christ served the church. Tonya Aghughu
Lauren you are such a good example of seed planted in good soil that grows daily by the light of the SON.Press on friend your life is glorifying God. Your insight into the passage has been used to touch my heart and keep me on center.
Wow, all of the comments are hitting home with me tonight. Thank you, Lauren for sharing your heart and everyone else for giving your input as well. This has given me a lot to ponder and meditate on.
Thanks, Lauren and everyone else for your comments! I love reading these!
God had been working on one area of my life for a long time. It’s pride. It takes on so many aspects. Selfishness is one of them. It’s saying I would rather do what I want to do rather than what God wants me to do. Another aspect of pride is judging. It is also a selfish act. It’s looking at the other person and saying I am better than you. Because when we judge someone else we are looking at them from our point of view instead of Gods viewpoint. I agree with Ben. Lord please let me look at others from your viewpoint – love.
Thank you Lauren for sharing. God used you to again remind me to stop being selfish.
Lauren, I’m so glad God connected you to all of us! I’m glad you were connected to the gals in your small group. I’m glad you were baptized. I’m glad you wrote today’s devo. woot hoot!!
I hope you become a cop and get me out of tickets…
Thank you all for your comments! I was so worried (and i really do mean stomach in knots, worried) that what I wrote just wasnt going to be enough to convey what was really on my heart! I am so glad that what little I did write opened some hearts! It certainly opened mine. That makes my heart smile so big!
With love,
LB
Lauren…so much truth and wisdom packed in your devotional and the comments…thanks for getting things started for us. One of the challenges I have when trying to “figure myself out”, with the best of intentions of determining the area(s) of service that most closely aligns with my giftings (which is a good thing, I think), is analysis-paralysis on MYSELF!
Lord, as Ben suggested, please help me see things as you see them…including myself. Please give me the clarity, wisdom, and faith to see and respond to opportunities to serve others on the spot.
Thanks again Lauren.
Lauren,
What a great key verse. Seeing how Jesus, God in the flesh, made himself nothing and as a servant really puts my own thoughts or past hurts in check as well. Jesus, who had it all and did not have to do anything, chose to honor his Father’s request and chose a life that was so much more unimaginably difficult than my life because he loved us (while we hated him in our actions), it is really hard to be mad about anything that happens to me at this point. I just need to smile, forgive and love, and remember Jesus.
Great devotion, Lauren -
Not always, but many Sunday mornings I enter the church concious that all those I meet should be treated as though they were Christ Himself. Why do I restrict this mindset to a couple of hours of church? Should I not treat everone that way everday? I need to pray Ben’s prayer….continually.
Nancy
I really enjoy reading the verse and then the insight everyone brings to it. The Holy Spirit is working in us individually and together. That is not something to be arrogant about, but in “mercy draped service” we’re really feeding each other and everyone that comes to this table. Amazing.
An amazing thing to me about this verse is that the Holy Spirit actually enables us to have the attitude of Christ! God through Paul’s letter commands us to have Jesus’ attitude. At the same time God gives us the command He has already made it possible for us to obey it. We now have the ability to empty ourselves, to be servants to God and to each other.
I have to make myself think this way. I have to discipline myself to keep at it – to not be selfish, to be a servant, to always think in this way. But it is still by God’s grace that I can even try and have a hope to succeed. That is also the central truth in the verse you quoted from Philippians – God works in us not only to do what he says, like an obedient machine, but to transform us so our minds, our desires, and wills are like Christ’s.
Thanks Lauren.
So, emptying myself to fill up with Jesus. Right now this seems like a moment-by-moment decision – an excercise in constant vigillance. I’m so grateful that God has made this task so difficult that I can’t do it on my own strength and attention. Only the Holy Spirit has enough effort to attend to this task every second. I hope that as I grow older with God, this task becomes easier the longer I practice it.
I think filling up with God might be like filling up a glass with water. If I leave it sitting around instead of drinking it, it gets lukewarm and stale. The only way to keep the water fresh is to drink it in, or pour it out, and fill it up again. When I’m with my children, either I pour into them fresh, living waters of kindness and gentleness in order to love and discipline them, or I dump on them stale water that leaves them injured and withered – a far inferior brand of attention from me. And as I go throughout my day requiring refreshment for myself, either I drink in God’s best, thirst-quenching, energizing water; or I settle for the last few meager drops of stale water that are left in a glass that has not been refilled. Then I have nothing for myself, and nothing to pour into the lives of those that the Lord brings to me. (And quite frankly, if the Lord observes my empty, thirsty condition, He might not choose to bring people to me! How unfulfilling to serve anyone!) In the words of Moses in Exodus 33:15 – 16, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that You are pleased with me and with your people unless You go with us? What else will disinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
Lord, please fill me and go with me where ever you send me today.