Giving Thanks

Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

                                             Ephesians 5:20

               As I read this verse I need to stop and think for a moment, stop and think about this life that the Lord has given me. Thinking about where all that I has come from, why I have it, and why I get to do what I do. At the moment I am sitting in my bed in the Lutheran Center in Antigua, Guatemala, as a part of the Potter’s Field Ignite Class 6. How did I get here? As I think about all these things, I realize that it is all because of Jesus Christ and how He has blessed me even more than I will ever deserve. I don’t deserve to be serving with this ministry that I am a part of, or even to have the breath that I am given each moment. But by the grace and love of God our Father He has given me these things as a gift. He gives me the air I breathe this moment, He gave me the means and opportunity to come to Guatemala with Potter’s Field, and He gives us all we will ever need in Him. And I need to have the mindset of thankfulness always for all He’s done. If all He were to give us were His son, Jesus Christ, as a ransom for our sins, that would be already far more than we deserve! Yet He blesses us every day with so much more. I can never be too thankful to God my Father for His innumerable blessings and acts of grace toward me. I pray that I would look at what He’s done for me more often and realize that I don’t deserve any of it, but He freely gives it without reproach.

Application- think about ten things that God has blessed me with and thank Him for them all.

Humbled Himself

And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

                                                            Philippians 2:8

               This verse shows the greatness, the love, and the goodness of God. As I read it over and over to myself it blows my mind. Jesus not only humbled himself by coming to earth as a man, he lived a sinless life and died on the cross. His sole purpose for coming to earth as a man was to be the sacrifice for our sin and bring glory to the Father. As it says in Romans 5, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

He didn’t wait till we were perfect or wait till we saw our need for Him. He died for us when we were still sinners. He humbled himself and was obedient to the will of His father. And His father will was that He die on the cross so that we who believe may live eternally with Him. Jesus didn’t die just some easy painless death either. Being crucified on a cross was the most excruciating pain a person could go through. He was first beaten, spat upon, and crowned with a crown of thorns. Carried his own cross to Calvary, and then nailed to the cross by His hands and feet. He died in the most gruesome and painful ways. And He did it all for us! He was completely empty of Himself and what He wanted and lived to please His father. He came to the point of humbleness that led to obedience. Will I come to that spot of humility? Where I look to the interests of others before my own, put what they want above what I want, and am obedient to what the Father wants me to do? Knowing that His ways are far above my own and He has a better plan for my life that will blow my mind. If I will just come to the end of myself and look to Him.

Application- make a list of ways that I can practically put others before myself in my daily life.

Made Himself Nothing

But made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

                                                            Philippians 2:7

               Jesus, part of the trinity with God and the Holy Spirit, being fully equal with God in heaven, made himself nothing. He set his divinity aside and was born as a man on this earth. Being born into a family that was not rich and wealthy or well off, but born into a family that couldn’t even find a room to stay in when He was born and instead stayed in a stable. He was born into this world in the most humble of ways and never complained about it. When He took the form of man and came to this earth He did not live as an earthly king or someone of high success. But He took the lowest of positions and served those around Him. Even as it says in John 13, serving and washing the feet of those who would soon leave Him. And then completely humbling Himself and dying on the cross while bearing our sins. I look at the life of Jesus and it blows my mind that He did this. For someone to do that in our world is not natural. Even for someone who loves someone to the utmost wouldn’t go to these extremes. But Jesus as Mrs. Jean McClure would say “Flew above the fray” and lived a life set apart and different than anyone else in this world. And He is my example for how I should live in this life. Making myself to be nothing, putting others above myself, serving with joy, and doing it for the glory of God. As a Christian I need to bearing the burdens of others and looking to help them out in their walk. Not just staying focused on my own walk and being consumed with everything about my life. I need to take a step back and realize that this life I’m living is not about me, and this kingdom I live for (the Kingdom of God) is not about me either. It’s about God and what He wants to do in us and through us to bring Him glory.

Application- take a step out of my selfishness and look at the needs of others.

Jesus is our Example

               Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

                                             Philippians 2:5-6

               Jesus is equal with God and before He came to earth He was in heaven with the Father as part of the trinity in complete unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But as the verses say before this one, to be humble and to think of the interests of others before your own interests. And it gives Jesus as the perfect example of this. He was in complete union and equality with His father God and He chose to come down to earth as a humble man and died for us. Completely putting his own interests aside and putting His love for us above anything else. And as the beginning of this verse says to have this same mind among yourself, which we can have through the power of Jesus Christ. We cannot have this mind of putting others above ourselves on our own, it is through the grace and power of Jesus and the help from the Holy Spirit every day. That is something that the Lord has been impressing on my heart in the last few weeks. That it is God who has done everything in us and that He is the one who works in and through us every day. As Philippians 2:13 says that it is God who works in us, both to will and work for His good pleasure. And when He does do things in our lives and works through us, it’s all for His glory! How mind blowing is that?! And He created us in such a way that when He does work through us and changes our lives from the inside out, it brings us the utmost joy! For we will only be satisfied when He is our everything.

Application- Memorize this verse

Interests of Others

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

                                                            Philippians 2:4

               When I am looking at my own interests I am constantly concerned with what is best for me. What I want to do most, what I want to eat, what I want to watch, what I want to play, the list goes on. But when I am looking to the interests of others I am concerned with what they want to do, eat, watch, play and so on. I am not just looking at myself and being selfish, but I am opening my mind up to how others feel and think. I find this to be difficult when I am making a decision. Making a certain decision about things may affect those around you. The choices you make don’t always just affect you. And personally when I am making a decision I’m not thinking about anybody else but myself and how it will affect me. But like this verse says I need to look to the interests of others. Looking at how my decision may affect them in a positive or negative way. And not being selfish with the decision I make, making sure it affects only me in a positive way. If I put my interests over the interests of others than I am not doing as God has asked to do. I’m not loving others above myself. I pray that God would show me practical ways to act this out in my life and He would embed this lesson into my head, because it is one that I need to desperately act on more often. It is not a natural act for us as humans, but by the grace and strength of the Lord we can daily make the decisions to either please our flesh and be selfish or please the Lord and put the needs and interests of others before my own. I just read a quote by C.S. Lewis yesterday that said something like The closer we get to the Lord the more we realize that all that needs to be done in our soul MUST be done by the Lord. It is nothing we can do on our own.

Application- look to the interests of my teammates today and not to my own.

Others as More Significant

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

                                             Philippians 2:3

               Paul is asking us here to consider other people better than our own selves in humility and as we do things to not do them with a selfish attitude. Humility is not to think less of yourself, but to think of yourself less. To not have a confidence problem and have issues with who you are, but to think about how to please yourself less. This verse is personally very convicting to me and something I struggle with. I so many times go around judging people and looking at them as less important, not as pretty, not as smart, or even sometimes not as Godly as I am. And that is a sin. I so many times put myself above others and judge them before I even know them. But as this verse says, I need to consider others more significant than myself. It doesn’t matter how I feel about a situation, how “horrible” it may be for me. But I need to be more concerned about how others are feeling and how comfortable they feel. It comes down to what we’ve been talking about so much here, dying to self. Dying to what I want, dying to how I think things should be, and dying to how much better I think I am than others. And really placing myself below them and putting their needs above mine. This is such a simple concept but it’s so difficult to live out, at least for me. I have never been a people pleaser, so for me to put what other people want above what I want is not natural. I naturally just do what I want and disregard how others may feel about it, at least most of the time. Especially when it comes to people that I don’t consider my “friends”. I have learned that I will do anything for my friend and those whom I love most, but when it comes to people I don’t really think of as friends, I could care less what they think or if they even get there needs met in a sense. Through this verse and the study of it, God is showing me how serious this is and how I need to lay that down to Him and ask Him to help me with it. As it says in Romans 12:3- For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Application- pray for an opportunity to act this out in my daily life here and apologize to my team for being selfish in this way.