“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13
We often see this verse in reference to military service members, police officers, fire fighters, and other first responders who risk their lives for others on a regular basis. It certainly applies to this situation. However, I think that we forget that it also applies to the rest of us.
Every day we have a choice. In fact, we have thousands of choices. According to research on the subject, we typically make around 35,000 choices every day. Granted, most of those are tiny little things that we probably hardly even think about. But still, we make thousands of choices every day.
A lot of those choices, even if we don’t realize it, involve other people. And in every one of those choices, we have an opportunity to lay our life down for someone else. We have an opportunity to put someone else ahead of ourselves, to honor someone else over ourselves, to love someone else over ourselves.
Our challenge, then, is twofold. First, we must learn to be conscious of these decisions. We have to learn to discern what the choices look like and notice them and learn to see them as opportunities to put someone else first. Second, we have to learn to be willing to do it. As Jesus said, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. That’s why I broke it up into two pieces. It’s a battle. We have to fight against our very nature as humans if we want to humble ourselves and put ourselves second. It’s the nature of our flesh to be selfish. It takes a lot of work, discipline, and prayer to submit ourselves to God’s will in this way. So don’t be discouraged if it takes time. It should. Just keep working on it. Notice the opportunities. Try your best to make the most of them.
Practice makes perfect.
Prayer:
Father,
Help me to see and discern the opportunities in my life to put others first. Help me to find ways every day to lay down my life for others. Humble me, and make me a servant like your son Jesus.
In His Name,
Amen.
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