My Daily Devotional

Think of Others First

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self control; and to self control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2nd Peter 1:5-8

Having spent my career in health care management I saw what sickness can do to people’s lives, and saw the different ways that individual people would handle their sickness. Some people were able to go on and lead productive lives, while others withdrew and were not able to function effectively. I remember seeing a Gallup survey which was done to find out why some people return to work more quickly after an illness than others. They found out that the quick returnees almost never think about their physical problems, while those who are slow to come back to work focus on themselves and their impairment. When Jesus came to earth, His whole mind was on others, not Himself. He taught His followers to do the same thing; to think about others, almost to the point that they forgot about themselves. He was teaching them not to be absorbed in themselves. His message—and His example was to do something for someone else, serve someone, minister to others, feed the poor, teach the lost, always think about others before yourself. Jesus’ whole message is to think about others first before ourselves, but this is so hard to do for most people as they want to focus on themselves. I believe that if we follow the advice of Jesus we will live longer, work more productively and bless others because of it.