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Wednesday, September 30

Selfishness

Difficult as it may be to admit, we are all selfish. Selfishness is a character flaw easy to recognize in others but not in us. The reason we do not see it in ourselves is that we cannot admit we are selfish. Let us consider this for a moment, is it not true we are all born selfish? As newborns, we cried when we were hot, hungry, and cold demanding that everyone stop what they were doing so they could take care of our needs. As adults, all we need to do is look at our checkbooks and daily schedules to see that everything we do revolves around us. At best, our schedules might reveal that if not about me, then it is about my family, friends, job… actually, still about me.

Our Selfishness Has No Limits

It is one thing to be selfish in our relationships with others. However, selfishness rises to a whole other level when we are selfish in our relationship with God. If we analyze our attitude towards God and the manner in which we live our lives, we would see that we have displaced God, and we have taken center stage. Somehow, we have come to believe that God exists to satisfy our selfish desires. We are of the opinion that all that we have, money, time, relationships… all belongs to us and God can only touch them if and when we give Him permission to do so. When we do allow God access to something in our lives, we act as though He owes us something in return. If we give an offering, we bring it to God’s attention telling Him how well we did and how much He owes us for the deed. Sounds ridiculous, but that is how we often act. Think about it, the bulk of our prayers are about give me, give me, and give me. When God does not give us what we want or believe we deserve then we get angry with Him and in extreme cases, even stop coming to church. The problem with this attitude is that we fail to recognize that we were created to bring glory to God.

Romans 11:36 NLT

For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.

Revelations 4:11 NLT

“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.”

The Antidote

The antidote to selfishness is to give God the glory. We need to use everything God has given us, our lives, family, shame, time, wealth, everything and leverage all of it in a way that would allow others to see God in us and bring glory to His name.

Heavenly Father, I must admit there is selfishness in me, more than I’d like to admit. And the truth is that my selfishness only brings me disappointment in life. Allow me to flip the focus of my life around so that my actions, my words, my thoughts and desires would point towards you, your greatness and your majesty.