Self

Is there anyone in your life that seems to just take and take and take? You give, and give and they don't mind taking. Well, I have written my own little rendition to "Jesus Lover of My Soul"
You can insert the persons name that you wish! I will name my person a fictitious name like Rico.

"Rico (______you insert your own name), drainer of my soul (this is my title)"

It's all about you, Rico
And all this is for you, Rico
For your pleasure and your ease
It's not about me, Rico
As if you should do things my way?
You think that you are god and that everyone should surrender to your plan.

Cause its all about you...Rico
And all this is for you, Rico
It's not about me...

Repeat 2x

Should I have gone into the song writing business or what?
No but really something that has stuck with me has been the Daniel study (Beth Moore) where she uses this verse to describe the "Babylonian mentality" of each man for himself:

Isa 47:10
10 You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, 'No one sees me.' Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me.'

If you turn on Oprah or Dr. Phil or any other talk show you will almost inevitably hear them suggesting to the nation at large that the individual today needs to be able to love themselves before they can love anyone else. They will tell you to pamper yourself, take care of you, and make yourself happy. You will hear a lot of preachers tell you the same thing. It is total blaspheme to Christianity. We have NOTHING to give apart from Christ and it is in loving Him that we have any resource to be able to love others. Our problem in the United States of America is not a problem of us not loving ourselves. If I may be so bold I would say that most people are pretty infatuated with themselves. I believe therein lies the breakdown in relationships, family (the home), the church, the cooperate world. People are so busy looking out for number one. If we do not guard ourselves against this we will fall prey...we will fall prey! When we focus on loving ourselves we become even more miserable and we make everyone else around us miserable. We try to chase down the next thing to make us happy instead of "Loving the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength."

Let me bring up another point: myspace and other forms of communication. If you look on the average person's myspace you will see tons of pictures of them. As someone pointed out to me recently...that is why it is called myspace it is about them. I understand but my point is that I have seen girls take picture after picture of them self and post it up. My sister has several friends that have gone as far as to put full blown lingerie ads on their myspace (they like their bodies that much). It astonishes me. Just like the girl checking herself out at the salon the other day, I would like to suggest that our problem is that we are overindulged with ourselves and we have little room for God or others. I am not talking about a few minority who really get it and are living for the Lord, but I am speaking of America as a whole.

Here are some verses that I see lived out almost everyday:
NIV 2 Timothy 3:1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--
5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.


Deut 6:5 says this:
"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

Then again in Matthew 22:36-39
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' {37 Deut. 6:5}
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' {39 Lev. 19:18}

Why does the Lord Jesus put so much emphasis on us loving Him first? He knows that if we focus our efforts inward to find love, be loved, and make "self" happy that we will implode. Only when we come to Him with an undivided heart and love Him are we going to be able to love others and treat ourselves as the temple of the Lord, in holiness. So why all of the divorce and broken relationships? I think it has so much to do with all that I just typed. One person, or both parties loved themselves too much to become selfless and give and work on the thing. Then the easy thing to do was to quit and there you have the breakdown. People weren't loving God with and undivided heart, their priorities were off and they had nothing to give anyone else...because true love comes from God and it yields itself to others.

Matthew 24:12
12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,

Rev 3:15-16
15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
16 So, because you are lukewarm-- neither hot nor cold-- I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

The LORD will not be mocked. He doesn't want His children to be lukewarm. One thing I have made a habit of doing is asking God for an undivided heart and praying that He would give me a heart to love Him. While we can't control others or their selfishness we can decide to be firm and solidify our decision to stand firm and love God whether others get on board or not. There is a war and we must resolve and settle the dispute as to whether we will love or grow cold and choose self.