Christ-Centered > Self-Centered

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

When we become believers and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, it is no longer about us. Everything that we do now is done for the glory of God. What does that mean? It means, it’s no longer about our own comfort and preferences. Our life is no longer about fulfilling our own selfish desires. Instead, we remember that we traded our fleshly and sinful nature for God’s spirit of love and grace.

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23

I think sometimes we expect God to deliver on his promises, but we have yet to turn down our own plates. We haven’t gotten to the point where we want to empty ourselves of our sinful nature so that we can be filled with the goodness of God. We must get to the point where we are motivated by the things that strengthen our relationship Christ instead of what makes us happy in the moment.

It is always so interesting to me that everything we are called to do as believers is opposite of what the world is telling us. The world says, “I choose me over everything.” And because we are fleshly, we fall into this same thought process. While in a certain context, this could be applicable, it is the continued thought process that hurts our relationship with Christ. It trains our mind to believe that we will always put ourselves first, even before Christ. In a blog written by a man named Steve Sabol, he mentions how the world pushes its agenda of individualism, secularism, and narcissism. These things lead us to believe that others don’t matter, and God doesn’t matter, and instead life revolves around me and only me.

When we learn to put Christ in the center of our lives, everything begins to shift. The way we treat others begins to change; we look at people the way God does. How we spend our time changes; we no longer spend time entertaining anxious thoughts because we know our lives are built on a firm foundation. How we handle conflict changes; we don’t need to be right or liked, we simply seek love and reconciliation. ** and just as a reminder, we don’t always get it right** We are simply always listening for instructions from the Holy Spirit. Instead of having selfish ambition, we have God ambition!

For me living a Christ-centered life became easier when I realized what it truly meant to live a surrendered life. No one is going to know what’s best for me more than the one who made me. Matthew 6 tells us to seek first the kingdom of God, and all the things we need will be given to us. Sometimes we believe we are following Christ alone, but actually we are still keeping our own selfish desires close by. We are still holding on tight to the things of this world instead of letting go of anything that could be holding us back from pursing our relationship with Christ whole-heartedly.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, Hebrews 12:1

When we put ourselves before God, we are basically saying that we know more and better than he does. We are putting thoughts in our head that our lives are our own and we walk around living the same lives as unbelievers. But Colossians 1 tells us that The Son is the image of the invisible God and He is before all things and holds all things together.

Living a Christ-centered life is not easy in today’s world. We have other things that are dying to have the number one spot in our lives. We have dreams, goals, aspirations, ambitions, businesses, and a million other engagements that we are a part of and that rely on us. But as mentioned above, our Heavenly Father is the one who holds all things together, not us. To be Christ-centered also means to focus on the needs of others more than ourselves. As Christ followers, God has showed us the way to live a Christ-centered life through the life of his son Jesus Christ. Jesus looked out for others more than he did his own comfort.

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…. 2 Timothy 3:1-4

Living a Christ-centered life is central to our faith as followers of Jesus Christ because everything we do should lead back to God. Nothing that we do is for us to get the glory, but instead to bring others to Jesus Christ. That is a prayer that I pray very frequently (like daily), “God when people see me, I pray that they are drawn closer to you.” It’s never about me, but always about leading people to Christ.

One good way to center ourselves around Christ is to fast. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that requires you to “deny” yourself something you crave/like for a set period of time. The purpose is to use that time to spend with Jesus and a great way to humble oneself. Another great way to live a less self-centered life is to take a look at your schedule or daily life habits. In what ways are you serving others or building healthy relationships? Does everything in your schedule benefit your own good or are you making time for others? Remember God blesses us with gifts (talents and resources) not just to let us live a blessed life, but so that we can be rich in good deeds.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 1 Timothy 6:18-19

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