What we want is seldom if ever your will, O God.
Your desires are specific and benevolent.
You seek the salvation of every single human being.
Salvation means restoring a person to your presence.
We think of ourselves, to satisfy our selfishness.
Turn our attention from self to others’ needs.
To your glory. To your mission in this world.
To our neighbor’s eternal destiny.
Work in us your transformation of heart and soul.
Make us like the Lord Jesus Christ.
He gave up his glory and his earthly life.
Build our muscles to pick up his cross.
Save us, O Lord, for salvation.
Called to Freedom
Floating along with the current of culture, the church fell asleep in its complacency and compromise as the stream changed direction. Christians began to accept the world’s restrictions on our freedoms to worship and proclaim the gospel, and instead of awakening, we withdrew into the walls of our buildings.
I. 1 Corinthians 10:23-33. God, of course, puts limits on our freedoms. We must not sin. Rather, in obedience to His commands, we must choose to be helpful, build others up, seek the good of others and not ourselves, and glorify God in all that we say or do. Our humanistic culture we live in, though, seeks to externally regulate us and persecutes us if we do not submit to its dictates. Now, as Christians, we know we should submit to our governing authorities (Romans 13:1), but Jesus said we should not give to the culture what is God’s (Matthew 22:21). Our primary allegiance is not, then, to the current that has changed directions, but to where we are citizens (Philippians 3:20).
II. Romans 12:1-2. Sadly, many live lives conformed to the world rather than transformed by the gospel. Asleep while the current of culture sweeps them to their destruction (Matthew 7:13-14), they have accepted the walls the world has erected for us: the gospel is too outdated or can’t compete or is hate speech. Or perhaps the restrictions are personal: I’m too old or out-of-touch or have circumstances to overcome. When we use our freedoms for ourselves, we retreat within those walls by dwelling on the past, complaining, or just playing church. We know that all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27) and declare that if the church is not doing more, then it must be God’s will. But, God wants us using our freedoms for Him (John 14:12-14), and then He will do more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21).
III. Galatians 5:13-15. When we, through love, choose to use our freedom in Christ to serve others instead, we turn our focus outward rather than inward where we will destroy one another. The very nature of the church is to step outside of the walls where we have been driven by the culture to serve instead in deed and truth (1 John 3:16-18). Using Jesus as our example, we choose to serve in whatever station in life that God has placed us (Titus 2:1-8) and reaching outside the walls of the world and waging war against it with very different weapons (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
You may be using your freedom in Christ to fight, but what or whom are you fighting? Where is your focus? Inward for self or outward to serve?
What’s in It for Me?
What’s in it for me? This question shows
The uncovered self. O Lord! Expose
My inward love for me and mine —
Upon my lonely darkness shine!
For me my Lord and Savior died!
For sins of mine was he crucified.
He gave his life for all mankind —
Forgiven, I the lost must find.
My Father above, ’tis for your praise,
To seek my place in your good ways.
When life seeks not my happiness,
I then am blessed, and able to bless.
Beyond a Life of Self
Move us beyond a life of self
To your most glorious kingdom reign,
Where words are spoken on Christ’s behalf,
And deeper meaning is given to pain.
I think too much of me and mine —
Let Jesus occupy my thoughts —
Let life be engaged around your throne,
And heart embrace the enduring Cross.
I don’t want to change
Oh, Lord, I want to change, but then again I don’t want to, either. I’d rather remain in my self-centered ways. I’d rather blame someone else for my lack of success, for my stunted spiritual growth, for my coasting through life without significant goals.
I’d rather inhabit my small world than create an ever-expanding universe of love and brotherhood.
Father, I confess my contentment with mediocrity, my truce with the world, my complacency over eternity.
Chip away, O God, at the hardness of my heart.
Acceptance
God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Give me deep acceptance of where I am at this stage in my life and of my struggles, trials, and challenges.
Thank you for them all.
Help me to see beyond self, to give up the importance placed on my own thoughts and plans, and to deny self for the experience of the cross.
Thank you for calling me out of self.
Save me from the temptations of Satan, from the pull of the world, from the desires of the flesh.
Thank you for power and will to resist.
Use me to put forward the Good News of our Savior, to make a clear case for faith, to urge others to action according to your revelation.
Thank you the calling of service.
Trapped
By pride and high desires we’re trapped,
By passion for self our life is sapped;
May we from useless struggles cease,
From vanity’s fire may God release!
Outside of Self
Outside of self, O God, please throw me —
Let Christ be all! — You fully know me —
Come with the Spirit to purify
And burn away both me and mine.
The Self, the Heart, the Flesh
The self desires to follow its will,
The greedy heart wants more and more,
The flesh’s appeal is hard to kill—
All these, O Lord, help me ignore.
Show me my selfishness
Lord, show me my selfishness,
the ugly face contorted by desire,
passions springing up to control,
self in the center of my world,
hurts in others like an exploding grenade,
destruction of every good thing.
Lord, show me the love of Christ,
the beauty of his holiness,
driven by your blessed will,
your love the spring of life,
peace among men, in brotherhood,
the building of the eternal kingdom.