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RESOURCES Hutch's Weekly Week 19
RESOURCES Hutch's Weekly Week 19 | Week 19 |
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Putting Others First Joshua 1:10-18 "Until the Lord gives your brothers rest"… This is very powerful. You’ve got to understand this. The Israelites are still on the east side of the Jordan. They’re getting ready to cross over to the west side to take possession of their inheritance. But the Reubenites, the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh were already given their land by Moses on the east side. They thought the area east of the Jordan was more conducive to raising their large flocks. So technically they don’t have to go anywhere; they already have their possession. But God has another plan for them. God says to them, “You already have your land but you can’t have rest in it because your brothers don’t have theirs. And even though you don’t have to fight on this side, you’re going to have to fight with them on their side. In fact, you’re going to have to be the first in battle.” You see, God doesn’t intend for His people to concentrate only on themselves. The Bible never instructs us to spend time improving our self image. And there’s nothing in it about trying to make us feel good about ourselves. The Bible does say that we are to love others as we love ourselves. The assumption is that we already love ourselves well enough. According to the Bible, there’s no such thing as a bad self image. Now, you can have a wrong self image, but not a bad self image, because you love yourself. As a matter of fact, you love yourself so much you think God didn’t do you right. You don’t think God made you as pretty as you should be, or as tall, or gave you the right kind of hair. If it’s curly you want straight. If it’s straight, you want curly. And you pay all kinds of money to get the opposite of what you have! If you think you’re too thin, you buy products to bulk up; if you think you’re too fat, you torture yourself with diets. It’s all about me, myself and I. We have a multi-million dollar industry in this country for self-improvement books. But how about a book titled, “Putting Others First though Selfless Living” or “How to Make Others Succeed”? No one would buy them! But that’s exactly how God expects you and me to live our lives every day. The only things the Bible says about self are, 1. Don’t trust it, and 2. Don’t think of yourself as being more important than what you ought to think. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Phil 2:3-4 |
