Why is it all the rage, why is it the craze of our days? When did it become the fad, so popular, so very trendy and modish? I mean selfishness. IT'S REALLY UGLY!
You don't need it any. Hey Buckeroo, God loves you way too much to simply indulge your every fleeting desire or other kind of want when that's ultimately not even good for you or for others. (I'm still workin' on this one here)
"A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed." Proverbs 11:25
We can learn from good examples and bad examples right? Sure we can! Always have been able to if we want to.
Those who are selfish bad examples preach a clear message (from their life if not with words..) to us of what not to be, think or become.
The next time during this week or this month you run into a selfish person, paws and ask yourself.. Do I really want to be like that or opposite of that? Mr. Lu-Ciffer (I mean the devil) was a very selfish person when he tried to reach up to take hold of the highest position but he got put down. He craved worship and still does.
You know the way up in the Kingdom is to go down and serve people. That's what Jesus did because he's a very selfless person.
So what's the cure from ugly selfishness? It's choosing to believe in the most selfless Person and to be to live selflessly like Jesus did. Let’s follow Him closely.
We all need encouragement, so that what I want to do. I want to encourage you to live close to the selfless One. And to check your heart regularly. Ask.. am I primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics or others these days? Ask your friends, do you see me as a li’l gold digger? Do you see me as rapacious (aggressively or even causally greedy, just selfishly grasping daily, hoarding and livin "out on the take" rather than on the give?
What's your history with being acquisitive, or money-hungry, or avaricious.. you know, having and showing that extreme greed for wealth and more stuff.
Ask your friends, Hey what do you hear me talking about the most? Is it material gain? Is it conversations regarding "mammon" (that's the biblical term for riches. It's often used to describe the debasing influence of material wealth. When did Christ use this term. It was used by Jesus in his famous Sermon on the Mount. See Luke).
Did you used to view the lifestyle of covetous and "I"-itus aka selfishness as bad before? Did you see materialistic living or the nurturing the inverted-eyeballs as a trait of horrible character? Why did you change? Was it a change stemming from a relationship with Jesus?
How long have you been a me, myself, and I kind of person? Please turn, trust, change.. for your salke and for those around you. Simply repent in the light before you're left out in the dark.
Pause and think about selfishness long and hard. Just look at all the unwanted pregnancies today and why did so many people go through with that murder? Selfishness. Why did they go and get an abortion when responsible adults are lined up and waiting to adopt a child? What's more selfish than that act of abortion? Since the passing of Roe v Wade ('til 4/2/22 there's been lots of it). In the early 70s, listen to this day.. over 63 million babies have been aborted. Again, let me put it more clearly 63,459,781 unborn children have been murdered in the womb and to me this is a horrific travesty! Why? Selfishness.
Well the baby's a burden or an inconvenience to the mother they said. What about when the mother's life is in danger but now they become so liberal in the interpretation of that. If the mother even says, well I just felt a lot of stress from the baby. Oh and you're now in some kind of danger then. So we'll just go ahead and abort it. By the way, more than 40% of women admit to having had an abortion before.
So a lot of these women that are getting these abortions abolished, have done it the murder before. And the sad thing is this, it not only is permitted in our culture today, but it's even encouraged. It shouldn't ever be.
Here are 10 steps to get rid of your depression, are you ready for em?
Step number one: Go do something for someone who has more or greater needs than you have. Yes, Go do something kind for someone who is greater needs than you have, like go to a convalescent home and visit someone who's staying there. Go under the bridges to give out sack lunches and on one of our church's missions trips and then reach out to people in love with the gospel.. that are literally living on the street.
Go to someone with more or greater needs than you have and then help them out some, that's step number one.
Okay, are you ready? So here's step number two: Go repeat step number one ..nine more times with real enthusiasm. : )
Believers are called to act in love, to to be prayerfully considerate of others in their time of need and as God leads go help them out.
We are to prioritize our actions, our relationships, our goals, and our time spent with different people among other things. Of course the Lord get’s first place in our hearts.
Real Christians want to serve the Father in the will of God to please and glorify Christ. The Bible commands us to be a giving, kind, helpful, prayerful, loving sort of people daily. Sure, the Spirit leads us and that’s how Christ was led by the Spirit. It's how Christ still is. It’s a good witness to show kindness towards all people rather than some inverted greedy, me-first selfish, for this is the way of righteousness.
In the long-term, we will find no happiness, joy, fulfillment or success in selfishness, only isolation and despair. True meaning and love in our lives comes from a born again close connection with the Lord, with our family too (Church and biological family members), and with our selfless service for all mankind as well. As we take heed to the Word of God please never forget that the darkness of being selfish and self-serving-first must fade far away, for the Bible says..
“The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday. But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble. My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings." Proverbs 4:18-20
Here's the reality going back to a verse I quoted James 4, let your tears for the wrong things. You've done be shed. Let there be sorrow and deep grieve. Let there be sadness. Instead of laughter, You should feel bad.
If you want to be happy, you should opt NOT to think, speak, or act selfishly. Rather you and I need to think, speak and act selflessly.
"The greatest mistake any Christian can make is to substitute his own will for the will of God." - Harry Ironside
More than once Jesus deliberately addressed certain issues that quickly diminished the number of onlookers. It was unselfish commitment that thinned the ranks. - Chuck Swindoll
"No one should seek their own good, but the good of others." 1 Corinthians 10:24
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
“Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.” Romans 15:2
"Love is the doorway through which the human soul passes from selfishness to service." - Jack Hyles
"What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument." - Clive Staples Lewis
"However sweet the word may sound, any sectarian boasting is but the babbling of a babe. The divisions in the church are due to no other cause than to lack of love and walking after the flesh." - Watchman Nee
"The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:31
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20
"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace." Acts 20:24
"Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.'” Mark 8:34
Author Stephen King had a very serious automobile accident a number of years ago. Did you read about it. I've not read his books, but he even wrote about this in an article and the title of that article was: "What you can pass on" and from that tough time this is what Stephen says to the world:
"I found out what you can't take it with. You means I've found out why I was lying in a ditch at the sight of a country road covered in mud. And blood with the tibia of my right leg pointing out the side of my jeans, like a branch of a tree taken down in a thunderstorm.
I had a Mastercard and my wallet, but when you're lying into ditch with broken glass in your hair, no one accepts. MasterCard King continues. I got a painful, but extremely valuable look at life's backstage, truths. We come in naked and broke, we may be dressed when we go out, but we're just as broke Warren Buffett.
He's going to go out, bro. Bill Gates is going out broke. Tom Hanks is going out broke. Steve King is going out broke with not a crying dime. All of the money you earn, all of the stocks you buy, all the mutual funds you trade, all of this is mostly smoke in mirrors.
It's still going to be quarter past getting late. Whether you tell the time on a Timex or a Rolex. No matter how large your bank account is, no matter how many credit cards you have, sooner or later things will begin to go wrong and the only things you have that you can really call your own is, your body, your spirit, and your mind. (Now me thinks about this, for the believer those three are the Lord’s to direct). So I want you to consider making your life one long gift to others."
Wow, amazing conclusions. I don't know yet if Stephen King even believes in Jesus Christ, but he has certainly landed squarely on some important biblical principles that tell us that it's not about us here, the world does not revolve around us and if we try to make it revolve around us, we will be very unhappy people. God in the Bible addresses selfishness...
“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” Proverbs 18:1
“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:35
"An unfriendly person pursues selfish ends and against all sound judgment starts quarrels." Proverbs 18:1
"We do not fool Him by saying we want something for His glory when secretly our motivations are selfish. We do not fool Him by saying we believe He can work miracles when inwardly we doubt He will follow through." - Michael Youssef
"That fierce imprisonment in the self is but the obverse of the self-giving which is absolute reality." - C.S. Lewis
"Self is the root, the tree, and the branches of all the evils of our fallen state." - William Law
"But Jesus answered them, 'To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.' Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. So Jesus replied, 'Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does. The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wishes.'” John 5:17-20
"Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably." - Blaise Pascal
"To choose a career on selfish grounds is probably the greatest single sin that any young person can commit, for it is the deliberate withdrawal from allegiance to God of the greatest part of time and strength.. If your prayer is selfish, the answer will be something that will rebuke your selfishness. You may not recognize it as having come at all, but it is sure to be there." - William Temple
"Selfishness is never so exquisitely selfish as when it is on its knees. ... Self turns what would otherwise be a pure and powerful prayer into a weak and ineffective one." - A. W. Tozer
"Let this be thy whole Endeavour, this thy prayer, this thy desire, that thou mayest be stripped of all selfishness, and with entire simplicity follow Jesus only." - Thomas a Kempis
Would you pray something a kin to this?: "Lord, thanks for being right there for me today. Please God, I need You to help me to put the needs of others above my own in this (fallen mostly) loveless kinda world. I've been selfish too, but want to become more like You!!! Okay, so I shove the pride aside and plead for some help here. Lord, none can be happy with a selfish lifestyle, that me and my plans first mentality, that me being Lord of my life kinda attitude. I'm done with my way, and want to live Your way in the Spirit, not my own way, power or ingenuity. I'm done with the world's way. Specifically, help me to esteem others better than myself. I want this mind to be in me which was also in You, Jesus. Please impart into me of Your dynamite like power to walk it out. To live right, and close to You. Yes, so that I might go it You way, that You've always intended for me to go. Father God, You know I can't do this on our own. I really need Your desires first, Your divine help second, and Your wisdom too, all the way through! Yep, step by step, walking leaping and praising God. Thanks! So even at this moment, in faith pray that You would give me Your love for the unlovable. That's right -- even for my enemies who watch me, who try to pull me down or sometimes hurt me. Father, I pray that You would live through me, so I am no longer so self-absorbed as in my old life, but will put the needs of others above my own needs. That'll take some grace appropriated. O yes. It doesn't always feel so good sometimes, but You can empower any of us. Help me to put on the whole armor of God and grasp what that even means, to put on Christ and see the people as You see them. And I need Your perspective too. Danke sehr!.. in Jesus' name. Amen.
