Tag: selfishness

Selfishness to Salvation

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Depositphotos Image ID: 69572625 Copyright: Christin_Lola

Today someone spoke about going “from selfishness to salvation”. I have never heard anyone put it that way before, but it’s as accurate a statement as any I have heard.

Jesus said, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:25) Loving and holding tightly to my own life, shutting God out, refusing to concede control to my Creator, desiring to go my own way is the life of a person without God. Marked by a desire to control my own destiny, to be captain of my own soul, so that I can say, at the end of the day, “I did it my way”, is a life lived without God.

The terrifying reality is that God will let us go our own way. He didn’t prevent Adam and Eve from eating the forbidden fruit. They were tempted by the desire to “be like God”[a], to define good and evil for themselves, to make their own choices and, ultimately, to usurp God’s place of prominence in their lives.

The fruit they ate was “good”; it was delightful and even desirable.[b] The fruit, itself, wasn’t necessarily bad (the knowledge of good and evil). The decision to go their own ways, to assert their own wills over the will of God, was their downfall.

Without that fateful choice we might live  idyllic lives. We might forever be “perfect” little angels, but God obviously had something else in mind.  God must have known the choice we would make. Right?

That choice doomed us to the imperfection of our humanness, but it also opened the door to something else completely. It opened up the opportunity for us to enter into a relationship with God we could never have known in that “perfect”, idyllic, innocent (and naive) state.

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Lose Your Life for God

There is an element of self-centeredness even in our generosity and the good deeds we do.

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“Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:24)

Let’s be honest. People are self-centered. It starts from the moment we leave the womb. Babies cry when they are tired, cry for food, cry when they want something: their world is focused on their own needs. As we grow and mature, we (hopefully) become more attuned to others and begin thinking about meeting their needs, at least when they do not conflict with our own needs; but we are still primarily self-centered. Continue reading “Lose Your Life for God” →

Doing the Right Thing

Doing the right thing: If we are not faithful with the little things, we will not accomplish the big things.

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Man Standing on PinnacleMany people would like to save the world. Many of us find fault with our world in which poverty, homelessness, war and other evils exist. We want to be part of the solution, and we think we are. We have aspirations to take on the big things, but we ignore the little things.

We fail to realize that, if we are not faithful with the little things, we will not accomplish the big things. When we fail in the little things, we are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

I count myself among the many. I don’t always do the right thing. So, I am preaching to myself and to anyone who cares to listen.

One little, petty example got me thinking about this. It is not a big thing, but that is exactly the point. The little things that we ignore and discount add up. The little things are what define our character and the direction of our lives. The little things become the big things.

Before I give you the example, I urge you not to react the way I would be inclined to react. I might be tempted to say, “Well, I didn’t do that. He is not talking about me.” If you have not done what I am going to describe, don’t think you are off the hook. I guarantee you, if you are human, you have done something else that is similar.

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