Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,The pressure to seek your own desires comes not only from within, but is also encouraged by the prevailing self-centeredness of society. "Look out for number #1." "What have you done for me lately?" "Are my needs being met?"
The family doesn't stand a chance when one is curved inward (in curvates se), and focused on one's self.
But listen to the words of Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17:
"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me."
When our minds remain focused on the good of ourselves, rather than the good of the whole, a family ceases to be one, but becomes fractured and is essentially a number of individual components--not functioning as one.
Jesus' outward focus on the good of the other (the entire world), binds Christians together through faith into one body. At the pastor's conference I attended last week in Lubbock, Dr. David Ludwig spoke about "The Power of We." Because of the love of Christ dwelling within us, we do not have to remain curved inward. We can arise each morning, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and kill the desire to seek our own interest. We are able to fight against the "power of me," and seek the good of the we--the family. When this happens, the Christian family begins to function as one body, and the love of Christ is made known.
Resist the me, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, seek the good of the we. Amen.
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