Life Group - First John

We are going through First John in Life Group.

In the context of John's exhortation to rethink their relationship to God I was thinking about how selfish I was as a boy/young man. I never put myself in any one else's position. I only thought about myself. I rationalized it that I was insecure or some other psychobabble. But that's just another way of saying I am only looking out for myself. I was afraid of doing anything that might get me laughed at.

That is probably why I never understood dramatic novels. Action books I could get. But I never got Hardy or Dreiser and so on. It's probably a good bit of why I never understood girls/young women. I never tried to see things from anyone else's position. I was all about getting my own needs met.

Anyway. I was thinking, why did God bring up in my mind some old instances of my hurting people because of my insensitivity in the far past? I realized God wanted me to see I am not far from that younger selfish person. I am still a selfish person.

John says we know we are with God if we love one another. How do we know we love one another? When we do good things. If our conscious bothers us we can look at the good things we have done and ignore our conscious. God is greater than our conscious. He knows all things.

If we see our brother in need and do not help him how does God's love live in us? We cannot see our brother's need if we do not step out of ourselves and put ourselves in his place. Someone can walk right by us. If we are too busy thinking about the next thing we are going to do to pay attention to what is going on around us we can miss the obvious.

John is thinking mostly about physical need. But it can be emotional or psychological. I would not try to impose myself into someone's emotional stuff without being asked. But if God shows me things I can take the time to pray, to intercede for them. This gets me out of my selfishness and closer to God.