WATCHWORD:
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23-24
And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:20-23
Meditation:
Ego and Sufficiency
I think it’s hard to admit that there are times when we are often mired in evil thoughts, impulsive thoughts at the moment, thoughts that if we had a moment to think about we would not have had them. Often thoughts lead to action.
We were stuck in heavy traffic on a major highway. The lane we were in was moving slowly while the other lane was zipping right along. Then we realized that the car in front of us apparently had no place to go and was content with going there at an extremely slow, well under the speed limit, pace. Texting seemed to be involved. One of us “blew their cool.” At that point in time, neither one of us asked the question, “what would Jesus do?” It probably wasn’t what we did, and certainly not what we said.
While self-sufficiency can be a positive trait, too often we judge others behavior, think slow driver, by our excellent life skills, as if our self-sufficiency is the stuff that others should aspire to. In our self-absorbed culture, self-sufficiency and its sister-trait pride, has been put on a pedestal. We have done that on our own. Even the bravest-strongest of Christians need help in the determination to follow Jesus’ example, even when it means bending our knee, our pride, to societal demands.
In the privacy of my time with the Lord, my side of the conversation is occasionally reverent, often following rote memory passages of learned prayers, but sometimes we drift into a real conversation where I praise and make my requests in easy phrases. However, when asked to pray, say at a family dinner, too often I feel pressure to say the right, impressive words and phrases that would reflect positively on me. My ego gets in the way.
I don’t think I am alone, but I feel the need to ask God to make me Christ-sufficient instead of self-sufficient. To be more motivated to read God’s Word, to seek to act and react as Jesus did. One more thing, we do need to accept God’s graces that fall all around our lives, and be led by their power to help us share the hope of Christ with others. Lord, put me behind, and put You ahead. Amen.
The words of ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon seems to fit here:
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Bulletin Board:
My daughter sent this little gem — The speaker had droned on and on and finally paused and said, “OK. Thats enough about me. Now I’d like to hear what you think — about me?
Closing Prayer:
Lord, We pray for the heart position of humility. Humility in such a way that we do not cheapen our own worth or value within, but that we take the alignment that we are here for a greater purpose than just our own gain. We pray that You will highlight to us what it truly means to live a humble life, and that our own worth will be revealed by Your Light. It is only then that we may truly live in freedom and right standing, for we will hold our own value correctly. Lord, we welcome You to mold and secure our hearts in true humility by Your lead. In Jesus name, Amen
