Scripture: Philippians 2.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

Philippians 2:1-5 (NLT)

1 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate?

2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.

3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.

4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

So often in life we are taught to either have the same attitude as our parents, or as a church leader or role model that we admire, or as our supervisor at work, or as our spouse. In other words, if someone has it all together and doing something right, imitate them and you too will get it all together! In this passage today, we are admonished by Paul to imitate the only one that ever had it all together and did what was right – Jesus. Friends, as we read God’s Word and meditate on it each day, we can see the example set for us by Jesus. Even in this passage today we have some excellent pointers given to us by Paul that tend to better align us with the attitude of Christ:

• Agree wholeheartedly with each other – think about the opposite of that – make everyone miserable by disagreeing with everything they say or everything they want to do. Wouldn’t that be miserable and so opposite to all that Jesus did? Agreeing with each other means that we are willing to accept the gift that God has given to the other person. This often results in a better plan when we can put all the thoughts together and come up with a plan built by all involved.
  
• Love one another – sounds like a simple command, but extremely hard to practice, especially when we feel like we are the only one that has it all together, or if the other person is different in action or word than what we picture in our ‘perfect’ little minds!
  
• Work together with one mind and purpose – I like to give the example of a task where a group might be pushing a car up a hill. Together we can make it easy and pretty effortless. However, get one person pushing in the opposite direction and it makes for extremely hard work by all the others.
  
• Lay aside selfish desires; trying to impress others and your own interests, but try to take an interest in others and trying to help them;
  

Friends, when we accept Jesus as Lord, we strive to be more like Him in every way and have the same attitude as He had. This is an ongoing piece of work for us, because friends and non-believers of Jesus will constantly strive to pull us in the opposite direction with opposing goals and attitudes. So watch for this and strive to follow the ways of your Master – hopefully that Master is Jesus, the Christ.

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Lord Jesus, You knew that this would be a challenging world in which to live, so You inspired Paul to write the above words for our benefit. I pray that I will be very conscious of the way that You would have me to live and the attitude that I should display, so that others may see You in everything that I say and in every action that I may take. Please forgive me where I have been weak and selfish in this over times past. Please help me to always put my selfish ways aside and live my life with You in mind and with You driving my every decision. As I reflect back on each day I know that I will easily see my selfish ways. May they be fewer and fewer each day as I strive to follow Your will and not my own.

 

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