Following Jesus' Example of Service When It's Easier to Be Selfish

Welcome to Day 4 of the 7 Deadly Thoughts series! Today’s topic is Self-serving Thoughts.

Don’t forget to check out the introduction to this series if you missed it!

#4: Self-serving

My needs come first.

More than anything, I feel like the things I get frustrated about reveal who I really am. When I grumble about having to do chores that aren’t mine or growl about traffic inconveniences, I reveal the ugly selfishness of my heart. My attitude toward inconveniences reveals the status of my soul.

And lately, things haven’t been looking so good.

About a week ago, a thousand minor annoyances converged and I just about lost it. I had my list of priorities for the day and tasks I needed to get accomplished. I got frustrated because I wasn't able to get done what I wanted. By the end of that Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, after I had my little hissy fit, I realized that my priorities for that day weren't the important thing. Apparently, what really needed to be accomplished that day was God reminding me that His priorities are the ones that matter.

How will I know what God’s priorities are? By asking, and by following His example.

Asking Him

I’m challenging myself to start every morning asking God what his priorities are for me that day. I’m not expecting a divine itinerary to appear in my inbox each morning,, but I believe that through prayer and His Word that He will provide wisdom for each day, because that’s what He promises:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:5

Learning from His Example

Why do I feel like the world should cater to my needs and preferences, when the Creator of the Universe humbled Himself to save sinful humanity? Why do I feel so justified in my frustrations with feeling “overburdened” or “taken for granted” when I take God’s sacrificial love for granted every day? My thoughts become sinfully self-serving when I forget the example of Jesus, who served the unworthy to glorify Himself. I must follow His example of service.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:24

Whether we are scrubbing toilets, preparing meals, driving in traffic, wrangling rowdy kids, or working in an office every day, we have an opportunity to approach every task with an attitude of self-centeredness or humility. We must ask God for the desire and ability to joyfully serve others, enduring every annoyance, because we know that we are following in the footsteps of Jesus, honoring Him with our attitudes and our actions.

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Respond

Will you take the challenge to ask God every morning what His priorities for your day are? Will you ask Him to transform your attitude to that of a servant in every task that comes before you?

Forgiving the Unforgivable

Welcome to Day 3 of the 7 Deadly Thoughts series! Today we’ll be discussing Merciless Thoughts.

Don’t forget to check out the introduction to this series if you missed it!

#3: Merciless Thoughts

This person is unworthy of my compassion.

We don’t have to spend much time reading the news before we begin to crave justice. The world is full of corruption, exploitation, and bloodshed. It makes the heart sick and the blood boil; we are impatient for God to make things right.

When the headlines are filled with school shootings, domestic violence, crimes against children, wars, and worse, it’s easy to fall into the trap of merciless thinking. We loudly clamor for retribution, drowning out the whispers that remind us of the mercy we ourselves received when we really deserved punishment.

I think that was Jonah’s problem.

Jonah probably spent his whole life in fear of the ruthless Assyrians. As a country, they had a reputation for terrorizing and slaughtering their enemies. So when God called Jonah to go to Nineveh ( the Assyrian capital) as a prophet, he wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to obey. It was only after the Ninevites repented and were spared that Jonah revealed his reason for running from God’s calling:

“That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah 4:3

Jonah knew the power of God’s Word: he wasn’t afraid of the bloodthirsty Assyrians, he was afraid that God would forgive them. The very thought had sent him running from God, and later made him despise his own life. Even after receiving forgiveness for his disobedience Jonah didn’t want God to forgive the Assyrians for theirs.

In her excellent study The Word of the Lord: Seeing Jesus in the Prophets, Nancy Guthrie analyzes Jonah’s attitude this way: “He would rather have died than live in a world in which he did not get to decide who is and who isn’t worthy of God’s mercy” (52).

Are you tempted to think this way? Do you ever become frustrated because you believe that God is moving too slowly in bringing about justice? Do you really think that you are a better judge that he is? That your judgments are superior to his?

Merciless thoughts are prideful thoughts with a large dose of anger mixed in. Whether our desire for justice is on the behalf of ourselves or others, our longing for God to make things right becomes sinful when we sit in judgment over other people, withholding the mercy, compassion, and forgiveness that God has so graciously extended to us. This is what it means to be a Christian: to be Christ-like.

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
C.S. Lewis

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Luke 6:36

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32

As we become more like Christ, we should be enacting justice, but not at the expense of loving kindness and walking in humility before God (Micah 6:8).

All of the other sinners in this world deserve God’s mercy, compassion, and forgiveness just as much as you do (which is to say, not at all).

Guthrie’s reflection at the end of her chapter on Jonah sum up my thoughts perfectly: “Lord, make me less like Jonah and more like Jesus. My heart is full of my own prejudices and preferences. Give me a heart to love even my enemies as you do” (56).

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Respond

How do you allow God to transform merciless thoughts into compassionate ones?

Giving Thanks for the LIttle Things

Welcome to Day 2 of the 7 Deadly Thoughts series! Today we’ll be covering Ungrateful Thoughts.

Don’t forget to check out the introduction to this series if you missed it!

#2: Ungrateful Thoughts

Why does everyone else seem better off than me?

Theodore Roosevelt said it well: “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

Comparison takes everything good in our life and makes it seems small, inadequate, dissatisfying, and disappointing. It tempts us to sin by robbing us of the joy we should have from the abundance that God has given. Christians are not called to wallow in self-pity, envy, and ungratefulness when we’re disappointed, but to rejoice, pray, and give thanks in everything:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

And sometimes it feels impossible.

When deep fears and disappointments are dominating our thoughts, when our dreams crumble before our very eyes, and when hope seems out of reach: gratitude feels impossible.

But the bounty of God’s love for us is always greater than the poverty of our present circumstances.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7

What an awe-inspiring, mind-blowing gift! Often I’m guilty of being too casual in my response to the Gospel. As someone who grew up in the Church, it’s all too easy for me to take for granted that the perfect, sinless Son of God took our punishment upon himself and died in my place.

Amazingly, gratitude in small things seems to be the key to a life filled with gratitude in spite of everything.

Gratitude for little blessings (the sweet smell of rain, the Chickadee perched on my fence, the warmth of a cup of coffee early in the morning) reminds me of the small ways that God reveals His love for me throughout every day. These small reminders prepare me to be overwhelmed by the huge, glorious mercy of Christ’s death and resurrection.

"Overwhelmed" by Big Daddy Weave

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Respond

How do you redirect your thoughts to thankfulness when you’re tempted to be ungrateful?