Mark 9:35 – Verse of the Day 5/18/14

If you want to understand how sin affects us, think about how we all tend to work with a “Me first!” attitude. When was the last time you heard somebody who really wanted to do something say “Me last?” When something is attractive to us we want it and we want it now. We want to go first, and we want others to get in line.

This is what makes Jesus’s teaching in the Gospels so radical. Jesus says that in the Kingdom of God the first will be last and the last will be first. If you selfishly put your own needs first, in the eyes of Jesus you are really last. If you really want to be first, you have to seek to be last by being a servant to all. Biblical living and leadership means self-sacrifice for the good of others.

Whether you are called to be a Christian leader or not, Jesus’s self-sacrificial life and death encourages us to respond with faith. Pray that the Lord would make you grateful for what Jesus has done for you and that he would enable you to follow Jesus by living to serve others rather than yourself.