I am not for Me

Sometimes I just really love me some me. I also like spending time with me. Every once in a while I like to treat me to dinner (more often than not it's dinner at the drive-through). I tell me that everything is going to be just fine and that me is the most important person to myself. But here's the kicker,

Life is not about ME.

Ouch. I don't like the sound of that too much. I kind of like the thought of me being my favorite person. But living for Christ means so much more than living for myself.

Who are you for?

God has given grace to humanity through the death of Jesus, who paid our sins in full with his blood. The phrase that I teach in our kids worship is, "Grace is getting something you don't deserve." There is nothing that we could have ever done to make God give us grace, but God willingly and lovingly gives grace to us freely. All we have to do is accept that beautiful gift by believing that Christ died for our sins.

Yet, Romans 12 encourages us to not stop there.

Here are several things that Romans 12 says of Christians:

  1. Present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God,
  2. Do not be conformed to this world,
  3. We are one body in Christ made of many members,
  4. Abhor what is evil: hold fast to what is good,
  5. Bless those who persecute you: bless and do not curse them.

This chapter is so encouraging on how we are to live for Christ, and how we are to live in love with one another. What a beautiful reminder to know that this life is not about me, but about us worshipping Him.

How does this apply to me?

Some days I get so stuck in my ways and tired of being me, but I realize that most of the time I'm living for me, and not solely for Christ. There are even times when I pray only for myself and what I need. Though this isn't wrong to do, if all I do is pray only for myself and no one else, instead of the body of Christ or for those unsaved, every time that I pray then I'm living more for me than myself really thinks. I often pray for things that I want rather than things that God knows that I need. 

In Christ, we as believers should PRAY for one another and LOVE one another.

I am not for Me. I am for Christ.