Be Last

BE LAST.

So what do you want to be when you grow up?  Do you know what college you want to attend once you graduate?  Have you registered for the classes that put you on the right track to follow the career path you (or your parents, or maybe both) want?  Are you dating anyone?  Have you bought the latest I-phone?  

There are so many pressures on the American student today.  You live in a society where you're constantly pushed so much to become someone-to do something with your life-that this usually results in putting your needs above the needs of others.  I mean, how else is it going to get done?  When is there the time and energy to give generously of yourself?  

And love deeply?  You tried love a couple of times and that boy or girl only broke your heart.  I mean, you love your friends, at least the ones who stick close beside you.  You're told that the only way to achieve and be what you want to be is to do it yourself-to look out for yourself because no one else is going to do it.  And if you work hard enough, you can do anything!  

In Philippians 2 we are given the instruction to humbly "consider others as more important than yourselves".  It wasn't that long ago that I was in your shoes and I remember that constant pressure.  Yet, I also remember the joy that came when I put others' needs above myself.  When I took the time to listen to a friend who was really struggling with something-to help lighten the burden they carried even just a little bit-the Lord in turn provided me with the strength and grace I needed for a certain task.  When I followed His leading and led a Bible study for younger girls, He still gave me the time and discipline to do well in school while holding a job and playing tennis.  Or when I obeyed God when He called me on a mission trip during my spring break.

Time after time, after time, the Lord ALWAYS came through for me and gave me just what I needed.  This philosophy certainly goes against every thing our modern day society tells us.  And the reality is, putting yourself last will NEVER be glamorous and hardly ever enjoyable; I mean think of what it cost Jesus.  He was ridiculed and often misunderstood.  He stood up for the outcast of society-the lame, the sinners.  He was definitely not popular and oftentimes he made people so mad they chased him out!  He suffered and bled and DIED.  

Every time you put yourself last-every time you die to yourself to put the needs of someone else before yours-you are being obedient to God.  Let it be our ever growing desire to sacrifice greatly just as our Savior did so that "at the name of Jesus every knee will bow-of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth-and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!"