I found these two blogs from my myspace and thought I would post them here. I wrote them a couple of years ago but never kept up with the myspace blog. Here's the first one.
Titled: Just Thinking of Myself (Nov 16, 2005)
We are constantly growing in our relationship with God. If someone says they have come to a point where they feel they cannot grow any more they are sadly mistaken. We will never in this lifetime reach a point where we stop growing. We are human and though Jesus has delivered us from the bondage of sin and its consequence we will continue to battle our sinful nature.
God has been speaking to me a lot about my sinful nature. Sin, in its most simple form, is selfishness. Do you know how many decisions you make a day that are based on how something will benefit you? Do you know that many decisions you make concerning others could actually be made out of a selfish desire? I'm probably bordering on what philosophers like to call psychological egoism. All decisions are made for selfish reasons.
I don't think I would go that far, but I do think we make more decisions for selfish reasons then what we would like to believe. My conviction is this. Take a step back and think about the decision that is being made. Whether or not it affects me how is it going to affect those around me?
Don't get me wrong. There definitely are decisions that are made selfishly. You don't decide to walk into the middle of a busy street for no reason. Your duty to yourself is important, but duty to others is more important. The opposite of sin is love. If there is a child playing in the middle of a busy street you are going to step out into it regardless of personal danger to yourself and save that child.
We shouldn't only look at the immediate benefits of a decision either. Maybe our decision seems like it is going to benefit someone else, but how is it going to benefit them in the long run. We to often make decisions based upon loyalty over love. For example, a teenager is told by a friend that they are going to go to a party and that he needs to cover for him by acting like he is spending the night. Now loyalty would demand that the teenager does what his friend asks, but love looks at all the possible situations. Of course the loving thing to do is tell his friend no he cannot do that and then ensure that his friend doesn't follow through by getting someone else to cover for him.
Examples I've given so far are very obvious but how about the seemingly little decisions we make every day. I've had a very hard day at work. I am tired and maybe even a little irritable. When I get home my children want to play a game. The first reaction is going to be "You guys, I'm really tired. I really don't want to play a game." You might ask, "What's wrong with that?" Nothing is wrong with the response unless this is a nightly occurrence. There are times when we just need to put ourselves aside and do what is best. In this case the immediate result doesn't seem so bad but in the long run your children began to develop this idea that you really don't care about them especially those whose love language may be quality time.
My challenge to those who read this blog: Before you act stop and think about how your decision is going to affect others in the immediate present and in the coming future. Philippians 2:3-4 says "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourself. Do not only look to your own interests but also the interests of others."
Titled: Just Thinking of Myself (Nov 16, 2005)
We are constantly growing in our relationship with God. If someone says they have come to a point where they feel they cannot grow any more they are sadly mistaken. We will never in this lifetime reach a point where we stop growing. We are human and though Jesus has delivered us from the bondage of sin and its consequence we will continue to battle our sinful nature.
God has been speaking to me a lot about my sinful nature. Sin, in its most simple form, is selfishness. Do you know how many decisions you make a day that are based on how something will benefit you? Do you know that many decisions you make concerning others could actually be made out of a selfish desire? I'm probably bordering on what philosophers like to call psychological egoism. All decisions are made for selfish reasons.
I don't think I would go that far, but I do think we make more decisions for selfish reasons then what we would like to believe. My conviction is this. Take a step back and think about the decision that is being made. Whether or not it affects me how is it going to affect those around me?
Don't get me wrong. There definitely are decisions that are made selfishly. You don't decide to walk into the middle of a busy street for no reason. Your duty to yourself is important, but duty to others is more important. The opposite of sin is love. If there is a child playing in the middle of a busy street you are going to step out into it regardless of personal danger to yourself and save that child.
We shouldn't only look at the immediate benefits of a decision either. Maybe our decision seems like it is going to benefit someone else, but how is it going to benefit them in the long run. We to often make decisions based upon loyalty over love. For example, a teenager is told by a friend that they are going to go to a party and that he needs to cover for him by acting like he is spending the night. Now loyalty would demand that the teenager does what his friend asks, but love looks at all the possible situations. Of course the loving thing to do is tell his friend no he cannot do that and then ensure that his friend doesn't follow through by getting someone else to cover for him.
Examples I've given so far are very obvious but how about the seemingly little decisions we make every day. I've had a very hard day at work. I am tired and maybe even a little irritable. When I get home my children want to play a game. The first reaction is going to be "You guys, I'm really tired. I really don't want to play a game." You might ask, "What's wrong with that?" Nothing is wrong with the response unless this is a nightly occurrence. There are times when we just need to put ourselves aside and do what is best. In this case the immediate result doesn't seem so bad but in the long run your children began to develop this idea that you really don't care about them especially those whose love language may be quality time.
My challenge to those who read this blog: Before you act stop and think about how your decision is going to affect others in the immediate present and in the coming future. Philippians 2:3-4 says "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourself. Do not only look to your own interests but also the interests of others."
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