"Us Compared To Jesus"

  "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 2:5) What attitude? Humility of mind!

  It was on a news program that comes on weekly and it was featuring a school which put "self esteem" above everything else. They had one student after another stand before the class telling everybody of their own individual greatness. Many of them couldn't do their school work, some were struggling greatly in simple things of reading and writing that should be learned in school but they all had "self esteem." What made the program worse is the teachers were thrilled!

  It becomes very difficult not to equate this so-called modern day "self esteem" with what God's word speaks as "pride" and "vanity." Too many are on a diet of their personal greatness that God condemns. I once heard a statement made: "Pride must die in you, or nothing in heaven can live in you."

  Maybe we need to examine our lives standing next to Jesus. Here are a few things for us to think about:

(1) We are proud of our status - Jesus emptied Himself taking on the form of a bond-servant.

(2) We are proud of our profession - Jesus was a carpenter, a rather lowly profession in His time.

(3) We are proud of our family status - Jesus grew up in the home of a peasant.

(4) We are proud of our "luxurious homes" - Jesus had no place to lay His head.

(5) We are proud of our "wealth" - Jesus had none.

(6) We are proud to rub shoulders with those in "high reputations" - Jesus walked with fisherman.

(7) We are proud of our "high social circles" - Jesus was in the homes of sinners and tax collectors.

(8) We are proud of our "abilities" - Jesus said He could do nothing of Himself.

(9) We are proud of our "education and learning" - Jesus never attended a place of higher education.

(10) We are proud when we push enough to "get our way" - Jesus sought God's way.

  It should make us pause and look at who we really are. Did we make ourselves, create our lives or did it come from a heavenly eternal source? How did we become reconciled to God? What have our efforts really done for us?