What can I get?
In our daily lives, we are constantly barraged by two conflicting extremes of emotions, “What can I get?” and “What can I give?” We so often live in “What’s in it for me?” When we look at “the lust of the Flesh,” it is all about “What’s in it for me?” and “What can I get?” “What can I possess?” as it is all about our Flesh and being a “Consumer” as everything that I can get hold of is all for “Me.” We so often are all about beating others down, by words, deeds and acts, just to get even more, and to get the very best, and then to drive others away and to isolate ourselves, so that they cannot have what we have just stashed away for our personal consumption.
When our fleshly lust hold sway, we want to only associate with people that can enable us to clamber higher up the ladder of success, to be in a relationship with those who embellish us, who feed our passions, who give us what we lust over, to live in properties that are a “cut above the rest” and to drive vehicles that are more prestigious and much better than what all those other lesser mortals own. The “Internet” has a great raft of products to enslave people with, anything from the sordid to the “News” and to “time wasters” in many of those YouTube Clips, Facebook, Twitter and such, that can consume huge amounts of our time. There are many who claim to be “Christian” but as the humourist would say, “If they were ever arrested for being a Christian, then there would not ever be enough evidence to ever convict them.” So how is it with you and I?
A “Genuine Christian” should never be a total “Consumer” but one who is constantly “seeking to save the lost” to “show them a better way” and to be a giver and not a taker who is constantly asking, “What can I give?” in every situation. We should every moment be living a holy life that clearly represents Heaven and Jesus Christ. John F Kennedy at his inaugural address spoke his famous words, “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” You kinda wonder if Jesus Christ in his inaugural speech would say something like this; “ask not what GOD can do for you, ask what you can do for your fellow man.” Can you “play god” to your fellow man, one who will always lift their burdens, be a giver, a carer and a sharer and not a taker, unselfish in everything?
It is so easy to fall into the pit of “Selfishness” and to think that the world actually revolves around “Me,” and it is all about “What can I get in everything?” when we should be more asking, “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Matthew 22:37-39 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Matthew 22:37-39 {MSG} “Jesus said, “Love the Lord thy God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commandments are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hang from them.” It is really all about “What can I give?” rather than “What can I get?”
Speaking in 1970, former Secretary of Defence Melvin Laird declared: “our servicemen and women shoulder the burden of defense as one of the responsibilities of citizenship in this free country. Having participated in protecting and having met oppression on the battlegrounds of the world, they are able to appreciate and savor the blessings of citizenship in the country they serve.” To write this from a “Heavenly Perspective” we could get something like this, “Every soldier of the Cross shoulders the burden of defence as one of the responsibilities of citizenship in the “Heavenly Country.” Having participated in protecting and having met oppression on the battlegrounds of the world, they are now able to appreciate and savor the blessings of citizenship in this “Heavenly Country” that they eternally inherit and serve.”
So I guess, it all come down to this, “are we a giver or a taker?” Are we a “Supplier or a Consumer?” In essence, what the world needs today is a vast army of loving and loveable Christians, ones who daily live like Jesus Christ, and are givers and not takers, who never desire, “What can I get?” Quote; “What the world needs today is the light of Christ’s example reflected from the lives of Christ-like men and women. The intellect most powerful in behalf of truth is the intellect that Christ controls, ennobling and purifying it by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. Christ has given His commission: “Go ye into all the world.” Mark 16:15. All must hear the message of warning. A prize of richest value is held up before those who are running the Christian race. Those who run with patience will receive a crown of life that fadeth not away. {9T 135} These are on “Active Duty” and are always givers and not takers, so what about you and me, “ask not what your GOD can do for you; but ask what you can do for your GOD.”
