You Mean It’s Not About Me
Romans 15:1-4 Amplified Bible (AMP)
15 We who are strong [in our convictions and of robust faith] ought to bear with the failings and the frailties and the tender scruples of the weak; [we ought to help carry the doubts and qualms of others] and not to please ourselves.2 Let each one of us make it a practice to please (make happy) his neighbor for his good and for his true welfare, to edify him [to strengthen him and build him up spiritually].3 For Christ did not please Himself [gave no thought to His own interests]; but, as it is written, The reproaches and abuses of those who reproached and abused you fell on Me. 4 For whatever was thus written in former days was written for our instruction, that by [our steadfast and patient] endurance and the encouragement [drawn] from the Scriptures we might hold fast to and cherish hope.
Our mind has convinced us that where we are, what we have, what we do and how we live is about us. It is not just our mindset and thinking that has convinced us, but society rarely sends a message that we have a civic or social responsibility, and it definitely does not speak of a spiritual or Christian responsibility. It has become about who we are, what we want and how we see the world, even when our vantage point is not clear, or we do not have the wisdom or knowledge to assess it correctly. More importantly we are leaving out what God asks of us in the instructions that He has given us that pertain to life.
In a study that I read over a year’s time period only 75 percent of individual’s living in the United States read passages from the Bible during the year, but only 27 percent referenced reading God’s word daily. How can we follow a blue print that we rarely look at? How can we know what God desires from us, if we rarely reference what He gave us to guide our lives and our living? Selfishness and becoming our own God is a large part the challenges to us being able to see anyone or their needs beside our own. We can see the evidence of this when we look at the things that we focus on and our aspirations. We can see it manifesting itself worse in each subsequent generation and how they live. We can see it in the way we indulge ourselves and lack the self-discipline. We can see it in the divorce rate and in the amount of abortions, and children sent to foster care, or taken out of the home for neglect. We can see it in the high rates of elder abuse, and neglect. We can see it plainly in all who choose not to honor our parents, because we are focused on getting ours. How sad is it when we can look to the church for the biggest, scandals, controversies and drama. We have not taken up our cross to follow Christ instead we have chosen to use the church as a ways to a means to get what we can, to get God to bless us with more, to become famous and obtain power; not to help anyone, but for ourselves; in order for us to say look at what I have, look at what I have achieved. I remember my mother telling me years ago, that the happiest years of her marriage were when her and my father had little but they shared all that they had with others. They sowed into people, cooked for them, gave them a place to stay; they bore the infirmities of the weak. Their focus was on loving God, pleasing Him and ensuring that love was shared with others. As a result of their living in this manner God blessed them.
By no means am I saying that we should be poor, or that we are somehow better when we have little to nothing, but what is being said is, are we taking care of someone else? Are we paying it forward? Have our blessings become a blessing for someone else? Are we humbling ourselves to God, and His word to do His will, towards others, or are we too focused on us to see anything else? Are we so busy being our own man or woman, have we left God and what He has asked us to do in concern to others behind us, or have we laid it to the side, to be alright with ourselves, and to satisfy our flesh? God does not give us strength, power, position, possessions and resources for us alone, He clearly asks us to do, care, bear with and strengthen others weaker, and in a worse place than we are. But instead we have often adopted I had to work to get mine, or I got mine, you can get yours. Our life has become our own, and separated from the Word of God and relationship with God. It is God’s desire and His command that we do more with our lives than just live it for ourselves; the question is, are you willing?
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