Self-issssues

"This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves!"

I had to reread this verse over and over. It felt like a silent reproof to all my selfishness. A little I have needs too. A touch of I am not in the right mental space. Sometimes you need a break too. A brush of laziness. And my assignment seats at a corner waiting for me to look, beyond myself, at the people waiting for God's words through my hands. Sometimes, I want to be left alone. Some days I am lazy. I am not so zealous to pray or fast or wait on God to hear what He wants me to write about.  Some days, life's issues hit me and I feel broken, yet God wants to talk to the people who have yet to see His love. But I want to talk about my struggles, my needs and "Seek first and all will be added" is not soothing at that moment. Ofcourse, He would listen to all that, but...

In this verse, I see the standard our Friend and Saviour laid. He laid down His life for me. He gave Himself for you. And He only asks that we give ourselves for other people. That we listen to them even when we feel we have our share of burden. That we pray for them even when we have so many requests. And that I sacrifice my time to hear from Him so I can speak His heart to them. Not my words. Else no one would be changed. Now that I think of it, some verses of the scripture about Paul comes to mind. One moment! Okay, back from searching for it. It is in Acts 21: 27-36. Paul was injured and he could barely walk, but he stopped a moment for this crowd he knew would probably not even listen. And then he preached Christ, bleeding, injured, hopping on one leg and all. Then I think about the people God has used for me in time past. If they had been all about themselves, I wonder how I would have been helped. Onward, I will take my eyes off myself and fix it onto our Friend and Saviour. I will think more of the people God is itching to reach out to. 

Recently, I found a quote that captures this thought, "we are rescued to rescue." That's the sole reason we are here. Not to make a name, earn a living, build a family. All that is good, but the primary purpose, the one that is easily forgotten in our everyday hustle and bustle, is to be like Him and let His kingdom come first in us and through us. The way people will come to know we love them, is if we lay down our lives for them. This time it might not necessarily mean dying a physical death. It could mean dying to our ego, forgiving even when there is no apology, praying for them, reading our Bible for two (someone once said you go through things not just for yourself but for others, so you can teach them when the time comes. Winks). 

I leave you with a quote I found on FB, I use it to caution myself now.

"Someone, somewhere, is depending on you to do what God has called you to do." Don't fail them. 

1 John 3:16.

Acts 21: 27-40.

Have a pleasant day! 🖤🖤