Refocusing

Written by Myles MacMillan.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you." (NIV) Romans 12:3

Bible reading: Romans 12:3-8

I had a conversation recently with someone who was lamenting about how much work it was to stay up to date with their social media accounts. Getting pictures uploaded, writing about their day, scrolling through piles and piles of posts and monitoring and responding to the many comments can be a time-consuming task and it can even become overwhelming at times to try and keep up. Things like this can feel so important to us at the time we are doing them but afterward, we often realize that in the big picture, it really wasn’t important at all and we could have spent our time doing something much more rewarding. This got me thinking about what we place importance on in our lives and what our true purpose is. We live in a society that places the emphasis on self and putting oneself first regardless of what that means for others. This strategy is supposed to make us happier but ironically, when everyone is focused on making themselves happy, particularly at the expense of others, we become isolated, selfish and everyone loses.

Romans 12 offers a good reminder for Christians on how God wants His people to interact with each other. We see in Romans 12:3 that the focus should not be on ourselves but on others. If we plan to live like this, we need to consider where our focus is and what we value in our lives. If our primary motivation is self, then we will naturally spend all our time working to please ourselves. As Christians, we do get distracted at times with things like social media, jobs, hobbies and entertainment. These things aren’t necessarily bad but if they are distracting us from our true purpose then we need, to be honest with ourselves and re-focus on what we are called to be.

Romans 12:5-8 paints a beautiful picture of how Christians are called to live. It’s all about love and service and using what we are blessed with to help those around us. Can you imagine how much our world would change if everyone started living like this? Romans 12:5 goes as far as saying that we all belong to each other – just as all the parts of a body are connected and help each other, we are supposed to care for and serve one another. The rest of the body cannot walk so it relies on the feet to move it and the rest of the body cannot see so it relies on the eyes to guide it safely. As Christians, we need to use what we have to serve God by serving others in love – this is our purpose. Can you use the wisdom you have learned from God’s word to prophesy or speak to others? Can you serve? Can you teach? Can you encourage? Can you give? Can you lead? Can you show mercy? If we spend our time doing things like these to help others, we will see the fruits of our labour and be amazed at what God can accomplish through us. Brothers and Sisters, obedience to God’s plan for the body, which is His Church is an incredible thing. As we focus on blessing others, others will be focused on blessing us and God will be glorified through it all as we praise Him for the love that He shows us all through obedience to His Son.

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