Overcoming
Selfishness
Genesis 13:1-18
“Then
Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me……..” Vs.8
Life is full of conflicts, and people handle them in many strange ways. But how
do people of faith who depend on the Lord handle the conflicts that arise in
their relationships?
In Genesis 13 we can see how Abram, a man of faith, resolved a conflict he had
with his nephew, Lot.
Both Abraham and Lot are blessed with an incredible amount of livestock and
flocks, so much that the land could not support them both. This put a strain on
the land and caused strife between the herdsmen. So Abraham takes the
initiative, telling Lot, “we should not be fighting, we are family so let’s
separate. Look about you and take what you want and I will take what is left
over.”
Now this is extremely generous of Abraham. He is the elder family member who
had the rights to first choice. This is also the land God promised him, but
Abraham had learned that God could be trusted to protect him and to provide for
him so he could offer Lot first choice.
When you trust that God will take care of you, you can be generous toward
others.
Abraham appears to value Lot over the land. He refuses to let possessions trump
his love for a person. Part of learning to stand down comes from recognizing
the value of people. .
Selfishness is a word that we are all too familiar. It’s about our tendency to
put ourselves, our needs, our plans, our reputations before other people. of us
because of our selfishness tend to think more is always better. If we had more
money or time or friends, we would be happier and at peace. But quiet often it
is not so. We tend to put joy on hold until we obtain some goal that we
think we must achieve. But we get there only to find out that our desire is
even more. We often pursue for higher positions making ourselves getting home
much later, sleeping less, and devoting less time for our family and church.
People matter more than possessions. We may get what we want at times, but in
the process lose the person.
Thought for the Day
Are we focusing on possessions and selfish
achievements at the cost of relationship? Imagine how many conflicts might be
resolved if we focused on relating well to each other.