In Orbit

Man has a great tendency to be in orbit around themselves and have the world orbit around them. We may do good towards others if it provides some benefit to us, but it is done primarily to get something back. We may give to the homeless, if it makes us feel good about ourselves, but we may not give to the homeless in a way that actually helps them.

The universe is in perfect balance because it orbits around God. When people in a relationship are all orbiting around themselves, they are going to be in collusion and in chaos. We turn into users rather than ones who are truly free to give and to give wisely. God gives wisely. We can learn from Him.

Mankind has a strong tendency towards selfishness. Two people in a marriage both wanting the world to orbit around them are going to be at odds. There is always than a struggle to get our own way rather than God’s way.

When we get things out of order than we cannot truly live the abundant life that God has planned for us. (John 10:10) When we orbit around God everything else comes into perspective and in right order. What does it mean to orbit around God. It means to trust what God’s Word says the Bible and apply it to all of life. It means to be totally available to God so that you can be led of the Holy Spirit and do God’s will, even if it means sacrifice and suffering.

It means growing everyday in love with God and forsaking all sin, including indwelling interior sin. It means turning to Him first and not being overly attached to things and possessions, including money. (Matthew 6:24; 1 Timothy 6:10) It means loving people God’s way and in God’s power and to God’s glory. Then we will actually be helping people.

It used to be that sin was considered destructive to society, but now it is exalted. We live in a very narcissistic culture. We are like Narcissus who fell in love with himself and his own reflection in the lake and was so overcome with love for himself that he fell in the lake and drowned. Look at the results of the narcissistic culture. People are more and isolated and alone, they are suspicious of others because they have been used before, the moral fiber of society is crumbling in on itself and there is brokenness wherever you go—in the penthouse and the slums. People are not truly content.

This is what the Bible says about what mankind becomes when it orbits around self. “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:1-7)

Change the orbit and orbit with God and around God. God will teach us to love when we come close to Him in Jesus Christ, first is salvation then in growing in grace of knowledge and in service to Him. Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” He asked Peter this three times. (John 21:15-19) Jesus said, “If you love Me, feed and tend My sheep.” In other words, have your world orbit around Jesus and be in service to Jesus to add to other people lives with Jesus. Are we primarily concerned about serving Jesus or self? Is God’s passion our passion for the salvation of lost souls and the discipleship of those in Christ. Are we seeking to be used of God to add to other people’s life or do use them to add to our life. Sure, it is good if people respond with gratitude and love even for their own health, but it is important who and what comes first.

The “poor me” mentality of our culture could personally be broken in individual lives, if we could progressively move toward orbiting around God instead of self. We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. He holds everything in the universe in balance and he can hold you in balance as you humbly learn of Him from God’s word, prayer and service. He can heal us by learning of His way and His grace.

Jesus summed it up this way, “And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40)