How to Be Great at Being Least
Faith@Work is a Navigators sponsored monthly luncheon for business women in Albuquerque, NM. Its mission is helping business and professional women live out their faith more intentionally in their workplaces. We do this through several different means:
• Presenting challenging messages each month from local practitioners who are learning how to live on purpose for God.
• Promoting, developing and implementing Bible Studies in the workplace for women across the city.
• Recruiting, training and utilizing volunteers in a variety of ways to reach out and connect with other business women each month at the luncheons.
Faith@Work Message, March 21, 2011; "How to Be Great at Being Least" Albuquerque, New Mexico
Speaker: Karen Warin, Faith@Work and The Navigators Business & Profession Women's Ministry
As usual, the message I felt God putting on my heart to share at Faith@Work last month was something that came out of the pages of my own daily journal. More days than not, over the past three months, He had directed my thoughts to my own sin of pride. As I told my audience, I’ve heard it said that “we never discover truth. Truth is always revealed.” I think this is true of our heart issues as well.
As God spoke to me, I wrote, prayed, read and tried to apply what He was revealing.
• Presenting challenging messages each month from local practitioners who are learning how to live on purpose for God.
• Promoting, developing and implementing Bible Studies in the workplace for women across the city.
• Recruiting, training and utilizing volunteers in a variety of ways to reach out and connect with other business women each month at the luncheons.
Faith@Work Message, March 21, 2011; "How to Be Great at Being Least" Albuquerque, New Mexico
Speaker: Karen Warin, Faith@Work and The Navigators Business & Profession Women's Ministry
As usual, the message I felt God putting on my heart to share at Faith@Work last month was something that came out of the pages of my own daily journal. More days than not, over the past three months, He had directed my thoughts to my own sin of pride. As I told my audience, I’ve heard it said that “we never discover truth. Truth is always revealed.” I think this is true of our heart issues as well.
As God spoke to me, I wrote, prayed, read and tried to apply what He was revealing.
The first thing I discovered is that for every “Delusion of Grandeur” I have of myself, God has a clear and direct response. Whether my pride appears in the form of selfishness, jealousy, envy, criticism, materialism, or even “false humility”, He has a response in His word that I need to hear. Just doing a word search on “pride”, “humility” or “love” gave me a dozen or more verses that I copied into my journal. These verses help me to center my thoughts back on Him.
The hardest “pill to swallow” in my study of pride, was the realization that the root issue of this sin is loving myself more than I love others. Philippians 2:3 commands us to “do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” I’ve got some work to do in this area! But it was encouraging to remember that we are works in process and God is the Chief Sculptor. He will finish the work in His perfect time.
After reading Luke 22:26-32 I came up with a list of things to work on in my own life to help me become great at being least in the Kingdom of God. I’ve put some of these into practice already, and I’m praying that God will continue to reveal Himself and His ways so that I can become more like Christ. Here’s my list of principles and practices. Maybe you can come up with your own list.
Principles:
Become like children
Become like servants
Confess your sin to God
Repent of prideful ways
Strengthen your brothers
Become like children
Become like servants
Confess your sin to God
Repent of prideful ways
Strengthen your brothers
Practices:
Pray for a surrendered heart daily
Read The Practice of His Presence by Brother Lawrence for a picture of humility
Get rid of the things in your life that “own you”
Be generous with your praise for God and others
Do the job no one else wants to do
Speak Less; Listen More
Pray for a surrendered heart daily
Read The Practice of His Presence by Brother Lawrence for a picture of humility
Get rid of the things in your life that “own you”
Be generous with your praise for God and others
Do the job no one else wants to do
Speak Less; Listen More
Take this month’s challenge: choose one of these practices to work on in your own life. Or make your own list and start working on ways to be least in your spheres of influence.
To reserve a copy of the audio CD of this message, email Maura Dahrling at dahrling@comcast.net.
To reserve a copy of the audio CD of this message, email Maura Dahrling at dahrling@comcast.net.
