Love Walk
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Philippians 2:3, ESV
God said to write on love. I had no idea what I was going to write. I had been studying love and as I learned more about it, the harder I prayed. We all know 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 speaks to what love is: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
But God started to deal with me on how I implement love and become full of love. Our God is love and He has called us to become just like Him. As I started the research, God led me to Philippians 2 which goes into great detail on how we are to walk out love. I was overwhelmed by the instructions. In this devotional I am just going to focus on this one scripture: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. The word “significant” socked me in the gut. I thought, “Let me look this scripture up in the King James Version to see what it says.” Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. Then the word esteem just lingered in my heart. So I did what I always do. I looked up both words.
significant: sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention; noteworthy; having or likely to have influence or effect; important
esteem: respect and admiration, typically for a person. to set a high value on : regard highly and prize accordingly
I thought as I read the first part of the scripture that I was doing okay, but when I focused on count others more significant than myself, I just instantly began to pray. I knew there was much work that needed to be done in my heart. My mind reflected on our trip to Italy. There was this woman on the street begging for money and she was really rude. She actually hit my daughter with her stick because we would not give her money. We had been warned to watch out for pickpockets and so we were really guarded. I said to God, “You want me to esteem these people who are deliberately going against your word?” I heard the Holy Spirit say, “How else are they going to see my love?”
It is never about how we are treated by others; it is God’s job to take care of us. God’s concern is how we treat others, and are they seeing God’s love in their sin. We are made in the image of God so when others interact or see us, they should see God. As I meditated on what the Holy Spirit had put in my mind, God reminded me how much sin I was in and how He had others show me His love when I did not deserve it.
Self righteousness loves to visit us and make us think we are good. In truth the only thing separating us from sinners is Jesus Christ. Scripture says all of our acts of righteousness are as filthy rags. Love starts with humility (definition: a modest or low view of one's own importance; humbleness) and when we allow the Holy Spirit to do a work on humbling us, our spirit is ready to embrace the work of loving.
Father,
Thank you for love. We ask you to humble us as you are the shepherd over us, your sheep. Humble us so we can be the perfect image of you. We want to express your love wherever you send us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Affirmations: Matthew 10:20; Luke 24:32; Ephesians 6:19, Isaiah 55:11
You can also follow me at JCCMinistriestv:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMoEcr3koSqRbqVma5EGWgA/videos
My recently published books are now available at:https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Life%27s+Journey+volume+2+Jacqueline+Crooks&language=en_US&ref=nb_sb_noss