“If anyone wants to be first.” Mark 9:35 NIV
“Competing to be first, wanting to be best, needing to have the most, that will wear you out.”
My thoughts today are about “living upside down.”
Aren’t we a strange bunch? Always competing to be first, wanting to be the best, needing to have the most – always measuring to see how we compare with others trying to do the same. If you are first, how long before someone else is and you’re not? If you are the best, won’t someone else eventually replace you? When you have the most, isn’t someone working to have more?
And then Jesus comes into your world and changes the order of everything you thought you knew. Jesus does not forbid your desires; He sanctifies and elevates them. Make no mistake. I think God delights in your being first, if it is first in the right things, first in things that really matter in eternity. God wants you to be the best – the best that you can be without regard or comparison with others. And God is happy for you to receive the most, if that is about what you can do for good, rather than what you have and hoard. Are you getting the picture?
Competition and comparisons are rarely fruitful. Let your measurement of achievement be your own potential, not others’ possessions or positions. Such people are described as “. . only comparing themselves with each other, and measuring themselves by themselves. What foolishness!“ 2 Corinthians 10:12 NLT. That standard is low enough for anyone to reach without difficulty. The real issue is: how do you compare with God’s desire and expectations for you?
The disciples too often worried about who would be the greatest, who would enjoy prominence, who would have power and clearly recognized position. Here is Jesus’ answer to their desire, “If anyone desires to be first . . he shall be servant of all.” Mark 9:35 NKJV. The Kingdom of God seems to turn everything upside down from what would ordinarily seem natural to your way of thinking. Listen to what the Bible says, “Whoever wants to be first must put himself last.” Mark 9:35 TEV. Last is not at all what you are thinking about most of the time, is it?
It’s kind of hard to reconcile your drive to be first with the Bible’s instruction, “Honor one another above yourselves.” Romans 12:10 NIV. Or try this one on for size: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3-4 NAS. Above yourself, more important than yourself? Now that’s a bitter pill to swallow for most of us. In the Kingdom of God the way up is down. Until you are living upside down, you are not yet living in Christ’s fullness.
I think this is how and where you must begin, by embracing the practical truth that “Jesus must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” John 3:30 NLT. Think about it; if you can’t, or won’t, take a lesser place for Jesus to be greater in your life, how will you ever surrender first place for anyone else?
My prayer for you today is: make generous room for others, and keep Jesus first and foremost.