It’s estimated that the average person speaks about nine million words a year, and more than half are, ‘I, me, my, mine.’ But following Christ means dying to self, and self-centredness doesn’t give up without a fight. ‘Everything connected with getting our own way…is killed off for good.’ Self-interest is a daily battle, because we tend to try and cling to our own interests with a grip of steel. Jesus told His disciples, ‘Whoever wants to become great among you must serve the rest of you like a servant (Matthew 20:26 NCV). A servant had to carry out the instructions given to them, putting aside their own wants and needs and looking only to the wants and needs of the people they were serving. And we’ve been called to give up our own interests in order to serve others. If He has to, God will leave us with ‘a reminder’ of what it took to get through to us in our particular areas of stubbornness and self-centredness. For example, after his encounter with God, Jacob walked with a limp, but it was a constant reminder of his total dependence on God. The Message paraphrases the apostle Paul’s words: ‘So I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations’ (2 Corinthians 12:7 MSG). Maybe there's a habit you need to battle, a problem that keeps recurring, a person in your life who you find difficult to get along with, or even a physical condition that slows you down. God doesn't always take things away from us straight away, because He wants us to learn that we need to depend on Him and that we can trust Him to help us in our areas of weakness.

What Now?

Thank God that He’s strong in your areas of weakness. Ask Him to help you have a humble and grateful heart that puts Him at the centre of everything.