So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:1-4, ESV)
I have the joy of preaching on Philippians 2:1-4 at Southpoint Fellowshipin McDonough, GA this Sunday and in my study and preparation, I came across these 7 principles from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I won’t be using them in my sermon, but I still wanted to share them.
To eradicate selfish ambition in Christian community, Christians, Bonhoeffer says, should…
hold their tongues, refusing to speak uncharitably about a Christian brother (or sister),
cultivate the humility that comes from understanding that they, like Paul, are the greatest sinners and can only live in God’s sight by His grace,
listen ‘long and patiently’ so that they will understand their fellow Christian’s need,
refuse to consider their time and calling so valuable that they cannot be interrupted to help with unexpected needs, no matter how small or menial,
bear the burden of their brothers and sisters in the Lord, both by preserving their freedom and by forgiving their sinful abuse of that freedom,
understand that Christian authority is characterized by service and does not call attention to the person who performs the service.
The deer in Psalm 42 feels desperate and afraid and alone. His soul is “downcast” and “in turmoil” (v. 5). He is being taunted by his enemies (v. 10) and is reminding himself to hope in God (v. 11). He desperately wants to be in God’s presence because he feels forgotten by him (v.9). We often pull the first two verses out of the context of the rest of the Psalm, and imagine a nice little deer who is thirsty and finally getting to a take deep drink from a river or lake. I feel like the author’s have made that mistake here, but I also think the question itself is valid and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
When was the last time I felt truly DESPERATE for God? For HIM. Not for what he can do for me or give me or change for me, but just for him.
Like many/most Christians my personal prayer life is filled with requests for myself and others.
Lord please do… Lord please give… Lord please heal… Lord please provide…
There is nothing wrong with that. As Spurgeon said, “Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom.”
We are not God and we are utterly dependent on God. We do not take a breath without his allowing it to be taken. We must humble ourselves before him in prayer and ask for what we need and want and trust him to do what is best in answer to those prayers.
But is that all our prayer life is? Asking for things?
Exodus 33:11 is a beautiful verse and I love it.
Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. (emphasis mine)
Joshua did not have the incredible pleasure of God speaking to him “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” but even after Moses left the tent of meeting, Joshua wouldn’t leave. He wanted to stay right there where God had been speaking to Moses. He just wanted to be with God. God didn’t even have to speak to him, Joshua just desperately wanted to be in God’s presence. He didn’t ask for anything. He just stayed.
I also think about Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, hanging on his every word (Luke 10:38-42). She didn’t ask for anything. She just wanted to be in the presence of the Lord she loved.
What would this look like in our lives, I wonder? What would it look like to pray just to be with God? Without asking for anything at all?
I think it looks a lot like worship.
The Psalms are filled with prayers of supplication and intercession. There are also Psalms where the writer doesn’t ask for anything. He just writes a Psalm of worship. Many of these are the Psalms of Ascent, which were the songs the people of Israel would sing on their way to worship in Jerusalem. There are Psalms that are proclamations of God’s goodness and holiness and kindness and steadfast love. We can read these Psalms and meditate on who God is and all that is beautiful and wonderful about him.
When we go to church on Sundays and sing songs of worship and praise, we can enjoy God’s presence with our brothers and sisters in Christ just for the joy of being with God together.
Another verse I love is Mathew 13:1. “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.” Full stop. The next verse has great crowds gathering around him but the whole thing begins so simply and quietly. Jesus just went out of the house and sat by the sea. I wonder how long he sat there before people found him and wanted something from him. How long did he just sit by the sea in the presence of his Father?
We can go out of the house and sit in nature, quiet and still in the presence of God. I doubt great crowds will be looking for us, so we can just be in God’s presence in worship and fellowship.
There is nothing wrong with asking God for things. In fact there is something very RIGHT about that. But we have an anemic prayer life if that’s all we do.
God is incredible and worthy of worship because of who he is. He doesn’t have to do anything other than just exist. There is no end to God. There will be no point in all of eternity where we will stop being astonished by him. We can get a taste of that now.
Sometimes it is good to simply “be still and know that [he] is God.” (Psalm 46:10)
In our hustle culture we are rarely where we are, we are almost always where we are supposed to be next.
We are having lunch with a colleague but we are thinking about our next meeting.
We are talking with our spouse but we are thinking about the project we need to finish.
Our kids are telling us about their day but we are thinking about the game we are missing on TV.
In her book, IF YOU WANT TO WRITE, author Brenda Ueland calls this living in our destination.
We are not present where we are, we are living where we are supposed to be next. And in doing that, we never experience anything. We never arrive anywhere.
What are we missing? More importantly, WHO are we missing?
A concept I have been thinking a lot about as I write my next book is that love lingers. When we truly love someone, they have our full attention in the time we are with them. We are not in a rush to get to the next thing, we are there, in that time with that person.
I have a friend who is dear to me and we’ve had trouble recently coordinating our schedules to get some time together. One afternoon he had window of time between meetings.
I said no. Not because I didn’t want time with my friend, but because I didn’t want to be rushed. And I told him that. He agreed with me.
If we had met, he would be living in his destination, and I would have been living in his destination too because I would be thinking about how he had to leave soon to get to his next appointment.
It takes discipline to be in the present moment with others, but it’s worth it. If you want to build real fellowship and community. You must linger.
The Institute on Aging conducted a study on the Top 5 Regrets of the Dying and here is how the doctor who conducted the study summarized their findings:
It all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks — love and relationships.
The next time you are with someone, anyone, try to be in that moment with them. THAT is your destination, not what’s next, but right there, with them. It will be uncomfortable, and it will take practice, but it will also be worth it.
Joseph McBee 