Releasing ourselves to honor others.

Romans 12:10
¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. (NIV)

Our main agenda must be the spiritual and physical welfare of others. Imagine if we lived our life to honor others above ourselves. To be ready at any moment to abandon our earthly agenda to bless them in some way is the way of Christ. We must learn to release ourselves to honor others.

There are limits. If we live to be a blessing to others so much that we do not go to work or pay the bills, we will find ourselves outside the will of God. Our priority in ministry is our family. The Bible tells us not to turn away from our own flesh and blood. Our ministry is not limited to our flesh and blood. God is calling us to maintain a posture of honoring others more than ourselves.

Our struggle is to become submerged in the earthly priorities that we inadvertently place our agenda above the needs of others. We feel so much pressure continually from work, as parents, and even from the church to be here and there and to get everything done. The pressure can be overwhelming. This pressure also keeps our eyes on our own earthly agenda. It becomes easy to set aside the needs of others in the pursuit of getting everything done.

To live like Christ, honoring others above ourselves, we must do more than declare to ourselves that others will be our priority. We must deal with this pressure we feel from work, from friends, and from our own sense of duty as parents. This is an issue of trusting the Lord with our own welfare. We must trust the Lord to take care of us and our situations even if we don’t get everything done.

We must trust that God will intervene on our behalf when the project is not finished. We trust Him to let some meetings at work get canceled or moved to give us more time. The places where we extend ourselves too far can be a window into the places where we lack trust. This creates pressure and moves our eyes from our holy vocation to our earthly vocation or just keeping up with the house. Once we learn to trust the Lord to care for us, provide for us, and protect our reputation, then we can release the pressure that steals too much of our time and attention. Then we can live to be a blessing to others.

Prayer: Lord, help me to trust You in all things so I can live for You more. Amen.

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