By David ReayMonday 27 Jul 2020LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. (NLT)
An old Greek legend tells of Narcissus who fell in love with his own image seen in a pool of water. He was so besotted with the reflection that he ended up dying of starvation. An extreme example of an everyday reality: we think of ourselves so much that it does harm to our lives.
When we were infants, we were inevitably self-centred. The world revolved around us and our immediate needs. No one else mattered apart from them being providers of help and comfort. All pretty normal, but sadly we carry such self-centredness into adulthood. The world revolves around us.
In the middle ages, a man called Copernicus reckoned the earth revolved around the sun rather than the reverse. There was an outcry, even from the church. How dare anyone entertain the notion that the earth was not the centre of the known universe.
We all need to undergo a sort of Copernican revolution. To take ourselves off centre stage. Our own unaided egos can’t do this, but the new life Jesus offers us allows us to at least make a start. Not that we devalue ourselves, but that we value Jesus and so practise the sort of selfless love he practised.
Jesus is the risen king and so we are no longer king of the castle.
Blessings
David