Getting exactly what you want may carry the price tag of empty-heartedness

They only cared about pleasing themselves in that desert, provoked God with their insistent demands.
He gave them exactly what they asked for-but along with it they got an empty heart. Ps. 106:15,16 (MSG)
One of our challenges as Christians is maintaining a heart selflessly devoted to God's best for us. We often live for what we want with little or no wish for what God wants. Like Israel, we live inclined to please ourselves and irk God when the only time we relate to Him personally is to tap His reserve for what we "need." God, as he did with Israel, has a way if showing us how little satisfaction gaining earthly things brings. He may grant what we crave so that we get a renewed picture of the dissatisfaction many live with though they have many things. Real meaning in  life is in relating to God selflessly through our days and taking the light Christ pours into us to others. True nirvana is in walking with Christ. May you know the true contentment of having Christ at your center today.
Live for the needs of others not your own and find unfettered joy and your own needs met as well.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. -Jackie Robinson

A humble view of ourselves helps us better bless others

One of our failings as people is to overestimate our importance to the success of others. The funny thing is while we're focusing on how integral we are to their success; we tend to neglect their real, immediate needs. My inspiration for writing this blog is my current pastor, Dan. I love the way he downplays his importance to my success; meanwhile doing everything he can to ensure I'm all God made me to be. God desires that we have a Biblical view of self. We may think we're beasts (in the Black-American sense) but we still have to sleep (Tripp Lee). Yes, we are just mud, dust stuck together; but as mud we have help roles to fill in the lives of others that we fill best. Reach into the lives of those in and out of your circle today. You'll touch them when you see yourself as a hand, a foot of Jesus to them; meet their needs selflessly, sacrificially, out of joy not duty. Be intentional about seeing yourself the way God sees you and touching others God's way.

Are you self-righteous or Christ-like in your relations with fellow Christians?

2 John reminds us of our individual responsibility to walk in the doctrine of Christ. However, in our quest to be doctrinaire, we may find ourselves becoming less and less like the Christ we desire to model before others. I've personally struggled with finding myself becoming self-righteous in my dealings with fellow believers, particularly those who didn't agree completely with my belief system. G.K. Chesterton speaks of our tendency to live in either a small or broader circle. If we're not careful we'll call ourselves people of "the way" when in reality we are small minded and inclined only toward people of our doctrinal persuasion. Though we must maintain sound doctrine, the expression of our stand for our beliefs is as or more important than our Jesus belief's themselves. God help us as Christians to relate to fellow believers in a way that becomes their place as fellow believers in Christ. As we take these words to heart, we'll leave the motives of others in God's hands; we'll be people slow to speak, quick to listen, a people prone to pray and embrace those different from us as God guides us, we'll deal with fellow Christians in a accepting way. The only people Christ reserved anger for were the Pharisees; God guard us from a show of righteousness, a vain show which knows nothing of true, heart religion.