Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. (Romans 12:3)Someone once said, you are unique, just like everybody else. We are unique and special to God. But when we get to thinking we are the center of the universe, it gets ugly.
It is easy to think of yourself as the center of the universe, though. You are, after all, the focal point of your life. It is you who is thinking and doing and feeling. It would be strange otherwise.
But here comes the hard part. When we take Jesus into our hearts, we change the way we think. Our lives are no longer lived for our purposes and we begin to live for someone else.
It is not that unusual, though, when you think about it. we get married and try to make our mate happy. We have children and dedicate a large part of our lives, at least for a while, to them. We spend a significant part of our lives in making an employer happy. We do things for friends and loved ones. We serve in committees.
And hopefully, we do these things, not just for the recognition, but for the service.
When we start doing them for the recognition and the acclaim, there is where we get in trouble. When our service becomes to our own ends is when we begin to think of ourselves more than we should.
That comes into being a problem for those who are in public life, especially. People that others look to for something special get to thinking that they are special. Politicians forget they are serving. Movie stars forget that they are just entertainers. Preachers forget that they are teaching and modeling the life we should live.
Any time people look to you for leadership, you have to be careful.
You have to remember that we are parts of the body, Jesus is the head. We are in him, he is not in us.
When we remember that, we remember what he sent us here for.
Yes, it is one of the hardest things we can do in life – to look outside ourselves – but it is what God wants us to do.
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