In our egocentric society, we all view life from our own perspective. It's all about me, myself and I. We grow rigid in our ideals and we fail to consider anyone else's perspective.
I am not
advocating that we forget about our self all together. That is called
codependency; and it is a very unhealthy lifestyle for our body, soul and
spirit. As codependents, we also enable others in their harmful self-centered
behavior.
God's Word
does encourage husbands to lay down their life for their wife. He advocates
that wives submit to their own husband. There are also many verses that tell us
to prefer one another above our self.
However,
there is no instance where we are to forget our self completely. In fact, God
tells us to love others as we love our self (Matthew 22:39. If we do not love our self, it is almost impossible to
love others.
A simple way
to keep our self centered is to practice breathing out stress and then slowly
and deliberately breathing in God's peace and joy, mercy and grace, love and
healing. His loving kindness motivates our free will to choose humility and
repentance over our human pride.
The longer
we walk in His paths and discover His ways, the more we realize what really matters
in this life. We stop wasting time pursuing peripheral activities that have no
value in the eternal scheme of our everlasting life.
The trials
of life disillusion and discourage us. People disappoint us, even while we let
them down. We even lose our joy if we fail to rejoice evermore - regardless of
circumstances (James 1:2-8).
Jesus is our
focus, and He keeps us in balance in everything we think, say and do. His
Spirit brings equilibrium into our life in every way. We decrease daily, as He
increases within our spirit (John 3:30).
Prayer:
Father God,
when we lose You as our focus, we place our trust in our human advantages,
rather than in Your provision. We end up disillusioned and frustrated with our
life, drowning in our circumstances, and full of stress and anxiety. Yet, when
we totally surrender our life to You, You flood our hearts with Your peace, our
thoughts with Your joy and our choices with Your Spirit's guidance.
Keep us
grounded in Your perspective of who we are in You. Help us to overcome the
disappointments of life and to keep our identity confidently centered in You.
When we remember to view our trial as having a seed for a miracle tucked inside
of it, we realize You planned the circumstances so that we can share it with You,
as a quest with Your Spirit as our guide. We love you with our entire being and
we praise You with every breath we breathe.
Thought for
the Day:
Life is a
battle between angelic and demonic forces, but as we fight this war on our
knees, we are guaranteed success; the unexpected twists and turns of life allow
us to cling more tightly to Christ as our Savior and King.
