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Overcoming Selfishness, August 13
Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit,
but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
1 Corinthians 10:33
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There exists in the hearts of many an element of selfishness which
clings to them like the leprosy. They have so long consulted their own
wishes, their own pleasure and convenience, that they do not feel that
others have claims upon them. Their thoughts, plans, and efforts are
for themselves. They live for self, and do not cultivate disinterested
benevolence, which if exercised, would increase and strengthen until it
would be their delight to live for others’ good. This selfishness must be
seen and overcome, for it is a grievous sin in the sight of God. They need
to exercise a more special interest for humanity; and in thus doing, they
would bring their souls into closer connection with Christ, and would be
imbued with His Spirit, so that they would cleave to Him with so firm a
tenacity that nothing could separate them from His love.
The man whose experience is least to be envied is the one who shuts
up his sympathies within his own heart. Those who get the most good
out of life, who feel the truest satisfaction, are those who receive to give.
Those who live for self are always in want, for they are never satisfied.
There is no Christianity in shutting our sympathies up in our own selfish
hearts. We are to bring brightness and blessing into the lives of others.
The Lord has chosen us as channels through which to communicate His
blessings.
The time is coming when the earth shall reel to and fro and shall
be removed like a cottage. But the thoughts, the purposes, the acts of
God’s workers, although now unseen, will appear at the great day of
final retribution and reward. Things now forgotten will then appear as
witnesses, either to approve or to condemn.
Love, courtesy, self-sacrifice—these are never lost. When God’s
chosen ones are changed from mortality to immortality, their words and
deeds of goodness will be made manifest, and will be preserved through
the eternal ages. No act of unselfish service, however small or simple,
is ever lost. Through the merits of Christ’s imputed righteousness, the
fragrance of such words and deeds is forever preserved.
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