We Are Here to Serve

There is one way to guarantee misery in your life: Expect others to fulfill your needs. The most unhappy people in the world are those who are grasping and self-centered.

God's plan is so simple that the world can't comprehend it: By serving others, we bless ourselves. If we follow God's instructions, we are blessed with a clean conscience and a warm heart. By serving others and sowing seeds of love, we reap a harvest of love in our life. So you have a choice here: God's way or your way.

If you live your life God's way, you will put the needs of others ahead of your own. You will be concerned for the problems that other people are facing, instead of wallowing in self-pity about your own trials. And when you start to live like this, God will begin to bless you in surprising ways. You will find his peace resting upon you. You will discover that he is taking care of your needs in ways you never dreamed of -- and without you even having to be concerned about them.

Or you can do it your way (that's what most people do.) You can take care of Number One, hoard your money, worry about no one but yourself. You can focus all of your energies on trying to please yourself. You can do what YOU want to do.

Unfortunately, you will discover that your life is empty. The harder you try to make yourself happy, the more miserable and lonely you will be. And blessings from God? Forget it -- you are on your own. By choosing to ignore God's wisdom, you have placed yourself outside the boundaries of his blessings. You're out there all alone in a cold, heartless world -- a world filled with other people just as selfish as yourself.

Jesus summed it up when he said, "He who tries to save his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it."

God desires a world in which his children are blessing one another. He doesn't want us fighting over the toys in the sandbox. He wants us to share them and enjoy them together. He wants us to take care of each other. God's plan is a win-win situation.

To illustrate, the graphs below depict three kinds of marriage. Which one would your prefer to live in?