Register for an account with Coffee with God

get extra benefits

  • Join the conversation – you will be able to comment and collaborate on each post with other Coffee with God members
  • Receive email notifications when a new post is uploaded
  • See which post you have already read
  • Submit Prayers to the Coffee with God community

Blog

Living abundantly

James 3:16 – Small Self or Big Others?

Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today – self screams “Serve me,” but it’s a small self me, there is so much more to life, to the true me than self-promotion and self above all else.

James 3:16 TPT
[16] So wherever jealousy and selfishness are uncovered, you will also find many troubles and every kind of meanness.

Observation

I see the roots and hear the voices of jealousy and selfishness in my life. The crazy thing is that I am jealous of what I know will bring death upon me, and I am realising the deep-rooted selfishness that shapes my life. As I journey with my dad who needs me more and more, the voice of self is showing its disgusting self so obviously. I have allowed jealousy of others and promotion of self to deceptively gain new territory in my heart, and it is starting to shape me in a way that is not me.

The beauty of this is that awareness is the starting point of releasing the treasures of God in my life. I desire to live less for myself and more for others. So I have hidden selflessness as a treasure in my heart and I am asking God to reshape me in its beauty, in his beauty, and to heal the parts of me that want to promote and attend to self above others, above family. It’s amazing, I am hearing new voices, not just with Dad, but in many parts of my life. The voice of selfishness that had an unimpeded directive drive, is now becoming more frequently exposed in all its disgust. I am starting to find the joy of serving others, I am moving from duty to beauty. I even feel it becoming a passion, dare I say that.

And as I say “yes” to serving others above self, this joy is expanding. “Yes” seems to be the posture of God’s good being released in my life. I am slowly selling out self, I am slowly selling out all the voices and arguments and desires that want to promote self. I am feeling new freedom come as I lay down more of my selfish ambitions and self-centred serving. I can see the troubles I release in my relationships and my life, and the smallness that life can become when self gets the throne. Meanness of spirit is what I have seen and heard in me, and it’s not me I want to live with, because it’s not the true self, it’s an imposter who wants to shape my identity.


Application

A journey forever to go, but a joy to be enjoyed and pursued, selflessness. I will Hide this treasure in my heart and journey further into the intimacy of God for its release to continue. Continue to pay the price of the release of his good, his treasure in me, by dying to all the selfish shapings and becoming resurrected into the true me, the made in the image of God’s me, the one who serves others me.


Response

Thank you that you made me for others, you made life to be full of serving not getting, of giving not taking, of loving others not promoting self. So much in me wants to argue against this way of life, so much in me wants to scream “But what about me.” But I am starting to see and learn that serving is also about me, as I give myself away I become the fullest expression of me, a man I like to be with. I am seeing more clearly that as I live the alternative life of self it becomes troublesome and mean and small and lacks passion and joy. Thank You that You call me, and created me, for a big life for others.


Meditation

Meditate – selfishness leads to trouble and meanness.

Consider:
What story shapes my life, what voices have more say?
Have I fallen for the shape of consumerism and self over true self me?


JOURNEY DEEPER
321 Views