Value Others Above Yourself

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons Flickr/emslproduction

Philippians 2:3b-4 — “Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.”

My Needs

In the process of writing my original wonderful post I heard joyful and worshipful singing in my home. Normally, I am really happy to hear the singing. BUT not today, after all I was trying to write my post, and I need QUIET to think. All of a sudden, my right for quiet became more important than their right to worship God in song.

My Reaction

Without a moment’s hesitation, I opened the door and said to the person – “You can keep on singing, but please scale the volume down.”

Not Necessarily a Bad Need

When you first look at this situation you would say – “There is nothing wrong with you asking someone to be quiet when you need to think and are doing something of value.” Whether or not what I was doing was of value is not the issue – the issue is: the moment that sentence left my mouth – so did the peace of God which surpasses all understanding to be replaced with hurt and conviction.

God’s Conviction

I felt like I had deflated a balloon. Remember, we are to bring glory and honor to God in all that we do and worship is one of the most powerful tools we have to do that.

I was convicted of looking at my own current interest over the interest of the other person. I was being selfish, even though at the time I thought I was okay in what I had done.

Conviction Led to a WOW Moment

It was one of those WOW moments – you know the ones where God decides you need to see your life from a different perspective. In that moment, I realized just how easy it is to fall into selfishness.

A Better Approach

Let’s see how this could have been approached from a more Christlike manner (using kindness): “I just wanted to let you know that I will be working on my post entry, I find it very hard to concentrate when there is a lot of sound – would you mind giving my an hour of quiet to think?”

Why Is It A Better Approach

This lets the other person know that you respect them and that they have worth and value just as you do.

We are Expected to Make the Hard Choices

Being selfless is the hard choice – but Christ expects us to make it – because He demonstrated the example so loudly as seen in Philippians 2:5-7 – “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

Conclusion

Be encouraged – God is not finished with us yet, we will have many more opportunities to make the hard choices – to put the needs of others before our selfish needs.

Let’s take each and every opportunity to learn how to see others’ needs before our own.

Until next time – keep on developing your Christlike character.

What are some of your WOW moments of conviction? Share below.