Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death-even to death on a cross.     Philippians 2:5-8 HCSB

If you read the title and thought you were going to get diet advice, sorry, wrong blog. I’m not talking about less of me physically. I’m talking about less of me emotionally and spiritually. I have lived a life where it was all about me and all I got in return was misery and heartache. I finally realized that I had to confess my sins to Him. I had to ask Him for forgiveness. I had to turn my life over to Him. I will admit that I had been resistant to do so, but after making such a mess of it, I figured I had nothing to lose. I was right. I had nothing to lose except my former misery and heartache. I gained peace and joy.

I had to put Him first in His life. I had to focus on Him (Matthew 6:33). I had to consider Him in all that I did (Proverbs 3:5-7). I had to do my best to imitate Him (Ephesians 5:1).

But that wasn’t all I had to do. I had to put others before myself. I had to adhere to Philippians 2:3-4 which tells us to not do anything out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility to consider others more important than ourselves. We should not look out only for our own interests, but for the interests of others.

My pastor often uses the acronym for joy as Jesus first, others second and yourself last. Let me tell you, my friend, it works. If you think you have problems, get out there and start serving. When I do this, I usually find that my problems don’t compare to the sufferings of those around me. Paul tells us in Romans 8:18 that our sufferings are no comparison to the glory that awaits us. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:10 that after we suffer a little while that God, himself, will perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish us.

If you are suffering misery and heartache, do a little self examination. Are you spending a little too much time on yourself? Are you worrying too much about your problems and not enough about serving others? When I turned my life over to Christ, He put me to work. When we go to work serving others we have less time to fret about our own problems. When we focus on Christ, we take the focus off of ourselves.

We all like attention, let’s face it, but the problem comes when we are busy trying to turn others attention to us. Now, more than ever, we should be trying to turn as many people as possible to Christ. We must focus on Him and help others to do the same. The devil is going to distract you when you try to do that. Don’t be surprised at how low he will go to try to kill your joy, steal your peace and destroy your witness (John 10:10). But focus on God, He wants you to thrive.

Be aware, that the Christian life is not always easy. If anyone tells you it is, they are lying and are contradicting what is in God’s Holy Word. We are told that we will be persecuted for our Christianity in 2 Timothy 3:12, Matthew 5:10-11, John 15:18 and numerous other Scripture passages. The life of a Christian is not all rainbows and lollipops and you should be leery of anyone who tells you otherwise.

Jesus Christ emptied Himself to come to earth as a slave, a servant. This doesn’t mean His deity was removed from Him. He came to earth fully man and fully God. He did this so He could take on all of our sins so we might be saved. We know from His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane that He certainly did not want to be tortured, humiliated and crucified on the cross. He prayed in Luke 22:42, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from Me-nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” But, in obedience He subjected Himself to it all for our sakes. He put His Father’s will first and ours second and himself last. He didn’t use His deity to remove Himself from that situation.

If you are miserable, it may be because you are too focused on you. Maybe you are focusing on yourself and your problems a little more than you should. Put God first and focus on Him. Consider others more important than yourself. You’ll be amazed at how that helps. It’s a simple solution, really. It’s just less of you and more of Him. Why not give it a try?

Have a great weekend!