God-centered – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

As I’ve been reflecting on the life of Samson the past few days, two things stick out to me.

First and foremost, his whole life was self-centered. Even when he did things beneficial to the Israelites, defeating their enemies, it was totally incidental. It wasn’t his desire to deliver his people. It seems his desires were motivated purely by revenge.

Second, his relationship with God was practically non-existent. The only time he interacted with God was to ask him for help.

You never see him building altars. You never see him worshiping. You never see him giving thanks to God for his victories, or for anything else for that matter.

God did use him to bring some measure of relief to the Israelites from the Philistines.

But you never see him leading anyone. The only interaction you see him having with his own people ends with them handing him over to his enemies. (Judges 15:11-13)

He most certainly led no one to follow God.

He, like everyone else at the time, did only what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 14:17; 17:6)

I don’t want to be that way. I want my heart to be God’s, inspiring others to follow him.

How about you?

Selfishness and pride

If there is one theme that I’m consistently seeing in 1 Corinthians, it’s the problem of selfishness and pride in the Corinthian church. And so time and again, Paul tries to bring them back to what is central: God.

That’s what we see in chapter 8.

Some Corinthians were saying, “I know! I’m mature. I’m strong as a Christian. You don’t know. That’s why you have such a weak conscience concerning things that shouldn’t bother you at all (in this case, eating food offered to idols).”

But Paul reminds them:

“Hey! Remember what’s central here. You’re not living for yourself.

“You know that there is one God. Great! Remember what that means. He made you, and you exist for his purposes.

“You know that there is one Lord, Jesus. Great! Remember what that means. Remember that it is through him that all things were created and that all things, including you, exist.

“You’re not the center. He is.

“Remember this too: your brother (or sister) also loves God and is known by him. And if you destroy someone that Christ died for by your “knowledge,” you’re sinning against Christ, and God will hold you accountable.”

How about you? Where is your faith centered? Is it centered on you? Or is it centered on Christ?

The truth is, the moment we center our faith on ourselves, we lose sight of the gospel. We lose sight of our need for Christ, and we start thinking ourselves better than we are, while judging those around us.

We never outgrow our need for the gospel. So let us keep our lives centered on Jesus and the grace he has extended to us, and in humility and gratefulness live each day for him.