"Greater love has no one than this, then to lay down one's life for his friends." John 15:13
You may have visions of heroic sacrifice, dying in the place of another, honor and glory, let me stop you right there. While Jesus's words may lead to that place ultimately there are a million small steps between living a life of selfish desires and literally giving your life for another, yet we take the easy way out and only think about this verse in very large, ultimate, terms. As followers of Jesus we are to lay our lives down for the people in our lives, usually without shedding a drop of blood. Laying your life down is a lot more complicated than dying.
To lay down your life is to consider the other more important than the self.
To lay down your life is to believe that the well-being of the other promotes the well-being of all.
To lay down your life is to walk in the other's shoes so that you can understand their decisions without condemning their actions.
To lay down your life is to bite your tongue when the words that you would speak would lower the other.
To lay down your life is to stand between the other and danger, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual.
To lay down your life is to take a smaller portion of what is yours (time, money, space, etc.) so that the other may have more than the world give them.
To lay down your life is to put aside personal preference for the good of the other.
If we can lay down our lives in every moment, whether or not we can in the big moment will not be a question.
+ Fill in the blank: To lay down your life is to _________________________
+ In what ways do you need to work on laying down your life?
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