Consider Others More Important than Yourself
OPENING PRAYER:
Lord, help me understand what it means to demonstrate true humility. Amen
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Philippians 2:3-4 NIV
REFLECT:
When my wife and I moved to California to teach at a Bible College, we left family and friends far behind in Kansas and Colorado. This is where being part of God’s family is a real blessing. Several couples reached out to us to help us become comfortable with our move to a completely different culture. One couple were the elderly college maintenance man, Lewis, and his wife who was the school librarian. Both were quiet and unassuming and became our California parents and grandparents to our daughter.
We soon learned that this maintenance man had retired from being a very successful pastor in several churches in Southern California. He spent his days making sure the facilities at the college were in excellent shape. His value to the college was not only in the maintenance work he did. The college had a coffee hour each day and Lewis would take his coffee break at that time. The students would flock to his table and ply him with questions about ministry. They would even stop in to talk with him while he was working. No topic was too dumb for him. More learning took place during these impromptu sessions than in many of the college classes.
Lewis died at 89 doing the same thing for students at a British Bible college where his wife was serving the school as a volunteer librarian. To me he was a model for a person who fully implements Philippians 2:3-4.
APPLY:
To fully put the focus Scripture into practice we must take on the attitude of John the Baptist when asked about Jesus. “He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30)
CLOSING PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, help me to put on the attitude of John the Baptist and be willing to put others first. Amen
WORSHIP: