Are You God-Centered or Self-Centered - Introduction:

What will be the center of your life? In other words, who or what are you going to live for? You have a lot of options. You can center your life around a career, a sport, a hobby, making money, or having fun. There’s nothing wrong with any of these things. They’re all fine, but they all make a lousy center for your life. You need something at the center of your life that is absolutely unchanging, that can never be taken away from you. Because if your center can be taken away, you will always be under stress, knowing you could lose your security. That’s why you need to center your life on something that is unchanging and secure. There’s only one thing you can put at the center of your life that will never change and is strong enough to sustain you through life: Jesus Christ."The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself" Proverbs 11:25 (NKJV).

Somebody who is egocentric or self-absorbed is not usually a person you'd enjoy spending time with. Self-centeredness causes a person to be completely obsessed with themselves, their status, and their desires: to the point that they place their own wants over the needs of others. The one they love the most is themselves: to the detriment of other relationships. The Bible is clear that being self-centered or only thinking of oneself is a sin. When we think only of ourselves, we tend to forget the needs of others. Being self-seeking and having only selfish ambition makes it very difficult to please God. As followers of Christ, we should not be self-centered, self-seeking, or focused solely on selfish ambition. The line between self-care and self-centeredness There's a difference between taking care of ourselves so we can be in a healthy state to serve God and others (self-care) and putting ourselves first no matter what the cost to our faith, relationships, or the well-being of others (self-centeredness). We do need to care for our bodies, our hearts, and our minds. And all this is for the purpose of keeping us healthy and growing in holiness for God's service. Jesus acknowledged our perfectly normal, natural inclination to love ourselves when He said, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself". “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 22:36-40 (NKJV).

But the point He's making is that we ought to care about the needs of others in the same way we inherently care about our own needs. The apostle Paul reiterates this principle by saying, "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others". He's not saying to forget about your needs; rather, he's saying that we should also care about others' needs. We can take care of ourselves without becoming self-obsessed. We can care for others without becoming a doormat for abuse, which comes from us being God-centered and not self-centered. ""Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil" 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (NKJV).

The essence of sin is the shift from a God-centeredness to a self-centeredness. To know God’s will, we must turn away from self-centeredness. Look at it this way: To be self-centered: life is focused on self, we are proud of self and your own accomplishments, we have confidence in self, a dependence on self and our own abilities, seeking acceptance from the world and its ways, selfish and ordinary living. To be God-centered: we have confidence in God, dependence on God and on his abilities and provision, life is focused on God and his activities, we have humility before God, denying self, seeking first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and seeking God’s perspective in all circumstances, holy and godly living. "Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being" 1 Corinthians 10:24 (NKJV).