Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
When I was in college, I was serving in a church with a group of my best friends, and it was incredibly fun. But when you get that comfortable with people, sometimes it can get a little competitive. The way that we were competitive as a couple of Christian youths was that if one person started to do something to serve the church, whether it was taking out the trash or cleaning up after an event, it was very easy for some of us to jump in and try to do it before them.
I will be honest, this was one of the most loving, humble, selfless, and caring group of people that I have ever worked with. But I can also say that there were times where we weren't serving out of a good place. We were serving out of a place to impress others. Because most often when these competitions started was when there was leadership around.
I just laugh now, thinking about how ridiculous it must have looked to have a bunch of college kids just hanging out and goofing off. As soon as one of the pastors walked in, we would jump to our feet and try to find something to do and snag brooms from each other and try to get all the trash bags and run them outside. We were just trying to look impressive.
Today's Verse
Our Verse of the Day today is Philippians chapter 2, verse 3. The Apostle Paul writes this: "Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves."
This verse is all about having this attitude of Christ. The reason why I shared this story of my college experience is that, yeah, there are ways that we might try to impress others that are very apparent, and we cut back on those. But have you ever thought that there are things that we do in the Christian faith that we can do selfishly? Because at face value, how could serving others possibly be out of selfish ambition?
When Good Deeds Lose Good Intentions
When we serve others simply so that they may be impressed, it is out of selfish ambition. Very quickly we can be doing the things that Christ calls us to do and lose the attitude that Christ calls us to have. This attitude of humility, of thinking of others as better than yourselves, to lift them up and to say that person is such a wonderful person, not because they need to tell anybody, but because it's just apparent in the way that they live like Jesus.
Yes, it's important for us to take note of all the things that are obviously selfish and to work through those and to get rid of those. But then on a deeper level, I want to encourage all of us to dig down and find the things that maybe have gone hidden under the radar, that we've been doing so selfishly, and ask yourself questions like: would I do this if nobody was looking?
Questions to Ask Yourself
Things like, if I was planning to do this already, is it going to make me mad? Does it bother me when somebody asks me to do it before I do it? Because then we don't get the credit of saying, well, I was already going to do that. You didn't need to tell me. Questions like, are there other people who should share in the credit of this? I mean, it's that proverbial working on a group project, but you want all the credit for it.
Now think of others as better than yourselves. Ask yourself questions like: do I wait to do something until other people are around so that they'll notice? And am I thinking of ways to help others, or am I thinking of ways to make much of myself?
These are just a few of the questions that I constantly have to ask myself, because it's so important that we not only serve like Christ, but we serve with the heart and the attitude of Christ. Continue to love on others and do good, but make sure that you're doing it for the right reason, because Jesus sees you.
God Notices You
Your Father in heaven sees the good that you do in secret, and He will bless and reward and celebrate that in the light, because your value isn't found in what other people think of you. Your value isn't found in other people noticing all the amazing things that you can do. Your value is found in the fact that despite anything that you've done, God notices you.
We serve Him, and others, from a place of gratitude.