humility

"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."--Philippians 2:1-4

Yesterday I spent some time praying through this passage. It is one that always convicts me because no matter how much I grow spiritually, the issues of vanity and selfishness are hard to overcome. Our small group was challenged to spend some time in silence this week in an attempt to hear from God and make prayer more of a two-way conversation. With Lewis napping, it was not hard to sense the Lord communicating some things to me! I felt sins of pride and selfishness weighing heavy on me, especially the way I relate to Justin so much of the time. My desire is to put his needs above my own, but following through on that gets hard as the day wears on. My other area of weakness seems to be my tongue. I get myself into so much trouble by speaking rashly and without forethought. Of course, that is more a heart issue than anything because whatever I say comes from what is stored inside. All of this junk can be overwhelming, but God did not stop there.

More than anything, in the silence I sensed God's desire to commune with me. The first part of this passage shows that IF we have fellowship with the Spirit, comfort from Christ's love and so on, THEN we can love and serve and do these other things He desires us to do. An aquaintance recently shared with us how he is seeking to let Christ serve him. When you look at the gospels, Christ was looking for followers, but more than anything He was a servant--healing the sick and feeding the masses both physically and spiritually. It is humbling (and somewhat uncomfortable) to let other people serve us sometimes, let alone the Lord who we can't see, and yet it makes sense that He longs to do this in our lives even today. The passage continues:

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."

It takes humility to serve, but it also takes humility to let someone else serve you. We spend most of our days serving our families, especially the smallest members of them! My prayer is that you would find a few minutes today to let God serve you. Silence is most definitely a blessing when it happens! :)

p.s. Thanks to the moms who shared about adding to the family. Your knowledge is invaluable!