There is more than me?

In whatever you do, don’t let selfishness or pride be your guide. Be humble, and honor others more than yourselves. Don’t be interested only in your own life, but care about the lives of others too. (Philippians 2:3-4 ERV)

Okay, a moment for true confessions here. It is very hard being the caregiver to an elderly parent sometimes. There are just times when you want to have a little more sleep, get a little alone time or time with the girls, or opt for a bowl of cereal after a long day's work instead of cooking a meal. We all have these moments, whether we admit it or not, when we just want to ask, "What about me?" In those moments, it could just be God reminding us that not everything in life is about us! There are just times when life has to be about others.

It is so easy to consider our own needs, and even to drift into moments of complaining because they aren't being met as we think they should be. It is hard let go of what we think we "deserve" or should be given to us as a "courtesy" in life. As a new mother, I quickly learned sleep was never guaranteed. Babies have different schedules than ours! I also learned they don't care if it is dinner time for the rest of the family - when they want to eat, it is time to eat! As much as we might want to eat with the rest of the family, the tiny infant has needs that outweigh ours at that moment. It is hard to learn to let go of the things we believe to be our "rights", isn't it? 

By definition, a right is something "due to" someone because of some "claim" made to that "right". Many homes have a particular chair, maybe a recliner, which is "laid claim to" by one family member such as the father. That chair is referred to as "Dad's chair" and the rest of us in the family don't even think of sitting in the chair Dad has laid claim to. There are many "claims" laid in life, but none more important than the claim Christ laid for our lives. The truth is that Christ laid claim to us - at the point of the cross - and now he isn't willing to let anything or anyone else lay to claim to us!

This includes our desire to be in control, make selfish demands, or feel sorry for ourselves when our demands take backseat to another's. We may want a little more sleep, but the needs of another rise above that desire. We may want to enjoy a television show, but the earnest pleas of a small child, crayons and coloring book in hand beckon us to redirect our attention. We may want to shut out the day over a warm meal and relaxing bath, but the neighbor's flat tire or dead battery require some resource only we possess. Not all in life is going to be "fair" - nor is it going to cater to our desires. In fact, scripture reminds us to avoid too much of an "inward" focus because when we have one, those inwardly focused choices will be selfish, and selfish choices take us down a pathway of prideful decisions. Just sayin!

Pardon my soap box

There is always a danger of taking a portion of scripture, then choosing it to hang onto as meaning something, but not considering the context in which it is written.  This is why Jesus commended those who would study the scriptures, learning to rightly divide them, and then to proclaim them with the boldness he provides.  In order to get at the context of our study today, we must understand that God is doing a new thing in the New Testament church - he is establishing a group of believers (some converted Jews, others converted Gentiles) into a cohesive group.  In turn, he wants to direct how it is the church is to grow.  It is with the use of all the tools he provides - including the various leaders of the church, the scriptures, and the proper alignment of Old Testament teaching with the New Testament fulfillment.  He doesn't discount the Old Testament, but helps the believers to understand how the prophesies of the Old have been fulfilled in the New.  As the believers come together, there are rough areas which must be worked out - for the Jewish believer does not support the lifestyle and choices of the Gentile believer and the Gentile believer does not have the background of the old covenant to refer to in understanding what is being taught.  Old meets new - the two present some issues - unity must be established and common ground must be reached.  To this end, we find the letter to the Ephesian church being written.  It was Paul's hope to bring this sense of unity, centered squarely on the finished work of Christ and the fact of Christ being the fulfillment of all that remained a "mystery" in the Old Testament Law.  Thinking about how hard it is to mesh two dissimilar groups of people together and getting them to play well in the sandbox together, we have an impression of why Paul is writing.  To this end he pens the words calling them to really get into and discover the depths of God's love, experiencing the breadth and width of it, until it dramatically affects our lives.  Not a bad thing to consider as we look around ourselves today at the vast "meshing" of beliefs and practices in our cultures.  It is an excellent time to consider the power of the Spirit to "pull together" dissimilar groups and to make them one.

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. (Ephesians 3:20 MSG)

Our prayer for society today should be for Christ to live in their lives - as they would open the door and invite him in.  Too often we ignore the knocking - our earnestness in praying for those who are struggling to "open the door" is important because it may be the very tool which "loosens" the hinge!  The first step into fullness is the opening of our heart's door - without opening up, we cannot step out.  To this thought, we add Paul's words - God can do anything - far more than we could ever imagine or guess or request in our wildest dreams.  One prayer can ignite an entire church, or an entire revival. In the words of a prayer, God finds the access to the heart - the openness to receive he so earnestly seeks.

Rather than live with the dissimilarities, would it not make sense to ask God to begin to mesh together what belongs, weed out what doesn't, and bring afresh what is missing or has been abandoned along the way?  To my dismay, I see society pushing against and pointing out the dissimilarities in society rather than focusing on what has the possibility to unite us - Christ and none other.  I don't agree with embracing every lifestyle, accepting every behavior, etc. - for some are clearly against what scripture teaches.  I do believe we should pray for the uniting of believers everywhere - pulling us together into an entity of believers, not a gathering of individual believers.  How does this occur - by God's Spirit working deeply and gently within us.  God's Spirit - not our efforts - pulls us together in unity.

I live in a state plagued by legislation which has gone from bad to worse as time has evolved.  I don't want to point out the issues but you will understand that statement when I tell you I live in Arizona.  Between border wars and who can deny service to whom, this state has made the news big time over the past several years.  Protests galore almost any day of the week can be observed at our capital building and other prominent locations.  People are angered by the dissimilar treatment of others - and it is becoming a matter of public notice.  All I can say is that we need to pray for our legislators and those who elect them into office.  The job has to be tough and it has to consider all sides of the issues at hand.  No one knows how to handle the issues in their own minds - they need the mind of Christ.  The issues aren't whether a person is legal or not; straight or gay - the issue is whether Christ is in their hearts - for nothing will settle the "dissimilarities" until he is!  This should be our concern - to preach the gospel, to see it take root, and to then allow the uniting only the Holy Spirit of God can bring.

The church should be a uniting force in this society today - bringing first the prayers before the throne of God and then following that up with the actions of love which will bind us together.  Just sayin!

Bringing out the best

 "To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person."

(Luke 6:27 The Message)

Okay, am I really alone here, or do others have a hard time really praying for their enemies?  That whole thing about loving your enemies is a kind of ethereal idea to most of us.  As a matter of fact, it is the furthest thing from our minds when we feel them breathing down our throats, giving us a hard time, or gossiping behind our backs!  But....

God's Word is explicitly clear - if we are ready to hear the truth, that is.  Love 'em!  In other words, be merciful just as our heavenly Father is merciful.  One of the reasons we find it so hard to "love 'em" is because they just aren't all that lovable!  Face it, the idea of loving our enemies, praying for them, and even giving them the shirt off our back is kind of repulsive considering how they act toward us!

Why does God even bring this up in the Word?  Why did Jesus find it so important to model this principle while here on this earth?  I think he was trying to live out an object lesson for us.  The truth is that we were enemies of God, alienated from him by our sin, when he chose to love us!  The main thing we are asked to do when we are asked to love our enemies is to lay down "self" - with all its righteous demands to be treated with dignity, honored for doing good, etc.  Honestly, that is hard because we are dealing with what we feel are our "rights" here.

Yet, Jesus did just that - laying down his "right" to be treated with dignity, honored for the tremendous good he was doing.  He saw beyond his "right" to be honored because of his deity and took on the form of human man.  He looked beyond his "right" to be treated well because of his tremendous good deeds (healing the sick, setting the captive free).  He looked beyond "self" in order to see US!

That is what God is asking of us - to look beyond ourselves long enough to see others around us.  We may not be "tickled pink" by what we see, but if we really look hard enough, we will find that God will put that enemy as a burden on our hearts instead of a drain on our energies!  The instruction is that God will allow them to bring out the best in us, if we are willing to have that occur.  

How can our enemies bring out the best in us?  Well, we could unpack that for days, but here are just a few ideas for you to ponder:

- By focusing on their needs, instead of our "rights", we are showing them that they matter to us and to God.  Our enemies don't have the guts to outdo the love of God manifest in our lives.  They will find it impossible to return good when faced with evil - but they will be challenged by what they see us doing when we do!

- By allowing them to see Jesus in us, his unconditional love and his merciful forgiveness, we are pointing them to the grace of God.  It is much easier for us to desire what we see that somebody else is truly enjoying.  When others see that the grace of God is operational and truly enjoyed in your life, there is a hint of desire planted deep within their hearts for that same enjoyment of such unconditional love and mercy.

- By showing them that you will invest in them what they probably do not "deserve", you are pointing them to the cross of Christ in incremental measures.  That is what grace does - it motivates the heart to share what others cannot experience apart from Christ.  Our "rights" can take backseat to grace if we will allow that grace to bubble to the surface often enough.

- By loving even when we are not loved in return, we are showing the love of God for a world that had no desire to embrace him.  It is a common thing to do good to those that treat you well, embrace you warmly, etc.  It is an uncommon thing to embrace those who would stab you in the back, or leave you hanging on a tree!  

It may not be easy, and I daresay that I struggle with this, as well.  Yet, in learning to lay down our "rights" to be honored, treated well, etc., we are really learning to love as God loves.  In turn, we usually are rewarded with much more than we'd ever enjoy by simply sticking with what we feel we have a "right" to in the first place!  

God's rewards are ALWAYS better than anything we could possibly imagine.  The command to us is to let our enemies bring out the best in us.  My prayer for us today is that God will show us exactly how to do that in those troubling relationships we each have.  I don't know exactly how we will do it, but God does, so I will trust him to reveal how to embrace our enemies as he embraces us!