Imitating Jesus

As we start a new year, many of us will make resolutions. Some of them will stick while others will fade almost as quickly as they are started. The resolutions that stick are those that we desire most and commit wholeheartedly to.

In some cases, the resolutions that stick are those that are easy. We set the bar low at times, which is not all bad. Sometimes, we simply need to be able to state we accomplished a goal in order to build our self-confidence, which is important.

As followers of Christ, we need self-confidence as well as trust in God. Our human nature needs to trust ourselves just as we trust God. Yet, we cannot allow our self-confidence to overwhelm our trust in God. There is a balance we must achieve to successfully follow Jesus.

Using Jesus as our example, though He was and is God, He did not conduct Himself as high and mighty. He put others ahead of himself. He served others. Not as a waiter, but by addressing their needs. His miracles were not to lord His power over people, but to relieve people of pain and suffering.

We are called to imitate Him. How do we do that? We serve others with a humble attitude. How often have we heard that? Do we know what it means? Have you ever heard it explained? Here is a layman’s explanation.

When we go to give to charities, we are not to do so with a haughty attitude. When we give someone a few dollars to buy lunch, we are not to make them feel less than us. When we provide assistance to someone, we are not do so looking down our noses at them.

I’m willing to bet many, if not nearly all, of us have acted in one of the ways listed above at some time in our lives. After all, we are human, and we will make mistakes. But to truly follow Jesus’ example, we must stop such behavior. Otherwise, we are putting ourselves above God, even if we don’t think we are.

I pray we all look to Jesus to be our example. I pray we serve others with a humble attitude. I pray each one of us make a resolution to be more like Jesus as we start a new year. Be like Jesus. Build self-confidence. Be humble in attitude. Serve others. Start the new year right.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.