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How to Be Great

by Jerry Ousley
1/27/2007 / Christian Living

Kids come up with some pretty unique ideas sometimes don't you think? When we were growing up somehow the four of us decided the first glass of milk from the jug was the best. At that time milk came in a glass jug and it made a very distinct sound when the first glass was poured. It sounded something like "gulp, gulp." So, when a new jug was opened we fought and argued over who was going to get the "gulp, gulp." Sounds pretty stupid doesn't it? We were serious about it then.

To us the person who got the "gulp, gulp" was very special and privileged. Because I was the oldest I tried to get the "gulp, gulp" every time (though my success rate was about 25 percent). Whoever won and became the coveted recipient of the "gulp, gulp" was envied by the rest (for that moment anyway).

Even Jesus' disciples argued one day about which one of them would be the greatest in the Kingdom. When Jesus knew what the fuss was over He basically told them the same words as what He said in Matthew 23:11 "But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant." Jesus used a lot of what I call "Positive-Negatives." It is completely foreign to our own way of thinking. This is one of those "Positive-Negatives." To us being the greatest means we do our absolute best and climb over the heads of others to get to the top. But in the Kingdom of God those who are willing to take the lowly servant's position and humble themselves become the ones most usable by God.

Under this philosophy it is actually possible for each of us to be the greatest! In our present world system there can only be one greatest. But in God's Kingdom we can all be the greatest If we're willing to become God's servants. This means that we may not always get the "glorified job." We may be cleaning rest rooms or shoveling horse manure but if we are doing what God has told us to do in our hearts and we know we are in His will then we are the greatest.

You can't fake it. We might try to pretend being humble. We could just act like we enjoy doing the menial tasks. But we've got to remember that God actually sees what is going on down in the deepest regions of our hearts. He knows if we truly enjoy being a servant or if we're just doing what we've got to do to get to the top. That too is very different from this world's way of thinking.

To be the greatest in God's kingdom doesn't mean that we have to be the best. It doesn't mean that we always make straight "A's" or that we are perfect in every way. In fact some of us in the Kingdom may not even be as good at what we do as those not in the Kingdom. But because we have put our full trust in Jesus, acknowledged Him as our Savior, admitted that we have sinned and fallen short of God's own glory, and that we can never have the hope of making it without Him, that humbling of ourselves makes us the greatest. We all get the "gulp, gulp!"

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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