Spot Sneaky Selfishness Before It Stops You
Recently I was invited to speak at an event, and I was told to prepare a topic that’s within my area of expertise and somehow tied into their theme on "victory". It took me a while to think about that, because my first thought was, "What am I an expert on??"
Then I realized there is definitely one area in which I can call myself a true expert: selfishness.
Selfishness is understood to be a pre-occupation with one's self--we think of it as the opposite of humility. We often assume that in order to be considered "selfish", one must act in a manner that puts themselves ahead of others in an effort to gain an advantage. But there is another, more sneaky side to selfishness (and I think more of us struggle with this pre-occupation with ourselves than we think).
Many of us would never admit we struggle with selfishness. In fact, if there is one area where we often feel pride--it's in how humble we are! Humility is described as a modest or low view of one’s own importance, or a freedom from pride or arrogance. This is often confused with a lack of confidence or an uncertainty about oneself, which is both the definition of insecurity and the one thing that, unfortunately, I can claim to be an expert.
While these sound similar, they are two very different things…the main difference is simply where our focus lies: is it on others or on ourselves?
If you've spent any time in church at all, you've probably heard that God wants us to walk in victory and has a purpose and a plan for your life. HE DOES! But how many of us find it hard to live that out because of insecurity that’s cleverly disguised as humility? There are 3 areas I want to address in this series:
You may wonder what any of these things have to do with selfishness...but there are in fact 3 things these insecurities have in common: ME, MYSELF & I. Over the next few weeks, I want to break open the sneaky side of selfishness and help you to find victory in this area. It's something I wish I could say I have fully accomplished, but it's a work in progress--and I'd love to work on this with you!