This week at church, the pastor taught on Philippians 3:1-3. In verses 2 & 3 Paul lays out a contrast to help us recognize the difference between having a relationship with Jesus that is focus on yourself, and having a relationship that is focused on Jesus. Here are the notes I jotted down from the sermon:
Characteristics of a relationship focused more on yourself than on Jesus:
- You are unable to see the truth about who you really are.
- Your words and your actions don’t match.
- All your emphasis is on outward things.
Characteristics of a relationship focused more on Jesus then on yourself:
- You worship God in your heart.
- Jesus is the best thing about you.
- All of your confidence is in the Lord.
I have a strong tendency to make make my christianity all about me; about what I have done, what I’m doing, what I’m going to do, or how I feel about myself. I first gave my life to God about 20 years ago, and I have always known (theologically at least) that I was saved by Grace alone, not by my works. However, practically speaking, I often fall into this pit of self loathing because I can never live up to my own expectations of what a Christian should be. This self centered way of thinking about my faith has crippled my walk with God for most of my life. Recently God has been pulling me out of that, and helping me to think differently, but I still struggle with self centered attitudes.
There’s some pretty messed up things that go on inside my head, and when I focus on who I am, I often end up backing away from anything spiritual because I don’t think I’m good enough. It causes me to forget how much God loves me, and how valuable I am to Him.
I need to stop thinking that God’s ability/desire to use me has anything to do with how good a person I am, and stay focused on how much He loves me, how He has forgiven me. He doesn’t value me because of how good I am. He loves me just the way I am. He gives me the gifts and abilities that I need to do what He wants me to do.
I know that the best thing about me is Jesus, but I don’t always live that out in real life. I have a handfull of stories that I tend to tell about my self when I’m getting to know new people. When my wife is around during these times, she starts to roll her eyes and usually she will ask me later why I always have to tell the same stories. It’s because those are things that, for some reason, I am proud of. The thing is, some of them are probably things I should be ashamed of. I wish I could say that when I am getting to know people, and I start sharing with them the things about my life that I feel define who I am, that I would tell them about Jesus and what a huge impact He has had on my life. However, I usually end up trying to somehow comunicate to them how great I am, without appearing too prideful.
Often times, I’ll reflect back on what was said in a conversation I just had with someone, and too late I will see that I missed an opportunity to share Jesus with them. I was so focused on telling them about me, that I didn’t even really listen to what they had to say about themselves with a God centered heart.
God help me to keep my focus on You, and not on Me.