Selfishness

Lately, I have noticed an over-abundance (I do not know if this is a word, but it is exactly the word needed here) of selfishness in my heart. Through many situations I have really seen how much I focus on myself and my own desires. When I feel as if my desires are not met, I complain. When I feel like I am privy to certain rights and others take them away, I'm just plain unpleasant to be around. I have also noticed other people's selfishness lately. I see theirs way more than I do my own. Of course. Because when other people act selfishly, it affects me negatively. So I, selfishly, am more bothered by their selfishness than my own. There have been times when I have gotten extremely frustrated with a person for their selfishness. Then, I realized that is a manifestation of my own selfishness. Ouch. If I wasn't so focused on myself and my wants and my needs and my rights etc. then I would not care as much when other people act selfishly toward me. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Then, today I was on Twitter and saw a quote by C.S. Lewis that totally sums this up perfectly: "The more pride we have, the more other people's pride irritates us." It was so convicting, and a perfect summary of what I've been learning lately. Tozer has an interesting point on the subject, too. He says, "The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed... The heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest." Always "looking out for number one" is exhausting work! Here's what the Bible has to say about selfishness:

I Corinthians 13:5 -  "...[love] does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,"

Philippians 2:3-4 - "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."

These are just a couple of the many places in God's word that He calls us to not be selfish. But, as always, it is not enough to only put off selfishness. As Philippians 2:3-4 points out, we must also put on humility. We often see humility as not bragging about our own accomplishments, and sometimes people see it as denying compliments they receive. The former is obviously pride, but so is the latter - it's called false humility. Being humble does not mean that if someone praises you for something that you have to say "No, I didn't do it that well" or whatever. C.S Lewis (yes, him again) says, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less," and "God is not proud...He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him." Wow. Now those are food for thought. Humility is not having a low view of self, but rather, just not thinking about yourself. God is the perfect example of humility - how often are we willing to be in a relationship where we are pouring so much into it, and the other person is not? Not very often, if ever, that's for sure. But He is always willing to do just that to us, who refuse to show that same kindness to others.

Picking up where we left off in Philippians 2, the writer Paul goes on to give a beautiful picture of humility - "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant [slave], and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" v5-8. Wow. So, Jesus left heaven, where He was given the worship and adoration He is worthy of, and came to earth to live as a man for 33 years. As we all know, life is hard. He chose this hard life, leading up to the most painful death possible (crucifixion), and also the most humiliating, because it was that of a common criminal. He chose to do all this out of His obedience to the Father and love for us, but also out of His humility. He was not thinking of Himself and what He deserved while He was here on earth and during His death. He was thinking of us, who would later reject Him continually, even though we call ourselves His people. This is such a beautiful picture of humility. 

Jacqueline Heasley summed all of this up really well when she said, "The man, full of himself, can never proclaim the Christ who emptied Himself."

I'd encourage anyone who reads this to take a look at your own heart. Look for areas of pride/selfishness in your own life, because I guarantee they're there. This is something everyone needs to work on, myself (definitely) included. Please pray for me as I fight this sin in my life, and feel free to keep me accountable  by asking how it's going or what I've been doing to fight it.

Hope you all have a wonderful evening. :)