Today's Devotional Thought
February 02, 2012 by Rachel Piferi
I Am Third
I don't know if you are familiar with the I am Second movement, but it is a current movement to inspire others to put God first in their lives and really live for him. On their webpage (www.iamsecond.com), you can watch videos of actors, singers, athletes, and others talking about how they put God first in their life.
It is a great movement and there are many moving videos on their site. I highly recommend that you check it out.
As I was thinking about it this week, I started thinking that it should have a different name. I was thinking that it should actually be I am Third.
When I think about how God asks us to live and love, I am finding that he oftentimes asks us to consider others before ourselves. In fact, Jesus exemplified that throughout his entire ministry up until the night before his death when he knelt before his disciples and washed their feet in service. And as an example to us for how we are supposed to live.
We are certainly supposed to love and serve God first. And, in loving and serving God, he will ask us to love and serve people. And oftentimes, that will mean humbling ourselves, putting our own needs aside, and meeting the needs of another person.
Loving God.
Loving others.
Then, we come third.
In our highly competitive, self-focused, society, it is encouraging to see movements like I am Second that remind us to put God first. But when you think about putting God first, please remember that he will often ask us to put others second and then ourselves last. Showing God's love to others often means sacrificing our own self, our own needs, and our own desires. It is realizing that God is pleased when we put others ahead of ourselves. And that is when we show his love best...when we are third.
December