Selflessness

John 10:11 (NASB) “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

If we wish to witness and know what true beauty is then, we need only look to Jesus Christ and His selflessness. We can learn by reading the Scriptures that Jesus was fixed on His destiny with the cross. And that through sheer determination He accomplished the task the Father sent Him to do for our salvation. But He could only fulfill the Father’s will through selflessness.

On the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus was giving us His example of selflessness by washing the disciple’s feet. What were they doing? They were arguing over which of them was the greatest. This only goes to show us that selflessness is not part of our natural behavior. In fact, it can only be learned through the influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We talk of our importance and stature while the Spirit is trying to develop humbleness of heart and mind. Our DNA is contrary to the ways of God!

Once we grasp that our character is set in stubborn opposition to God’s, we can begin the healing and changing process in our souls. You might ask why it is so important to become selfless? The only answer needed is because God says we need to be.

Jesus was so determined to obey the Father on that night in the garden that he sweated blood. He was about to carry the entire world’s guilt, past, present, and future on His shoulders for the cancelling of our debt with the Father. There have been times in my life when I have felt the weight of my own guilt pressing down on me. I can’t imagine bearing the world’s sins for even a moment. Yet, through the selflessness of Jesus Christ the relationship with the Father is restored if we but yield.

And it is the yielding to Christ that begins our journey to selflessness. This is not an act of waving a magic wand and poof, we are selfless. It is the development of our character through the Spirit and trials. If you were told the free gift of grace also meant a “free ride”, well that’s just wrong. We must experience hardships and trials to prove our character. We will be tested!

Luke 14: 28-30 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”

Let’s hold on to our faith and remain true to Christ. Let’s let the Holy Spirit work His ways of selflessness into our lives until we overflow with placing others ahead of ourselves.

Amen?

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