The Posture of a Servant | Mornings with Mico

Yo, yo, yo people, what's going on, man? We still down here at Eden Park. We still count out this idea of humility. I mentioned God's really just been ministering to my heart lately. There's a passage in Philippians, starting in chapter 2, verse 3, it says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. That each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, humbled himself by becoming obedient at the point of death, even death on the cross. This is a weighty passage. I won't unpack all of it. This could be a whole one week devotional, to be honest with you. That's kind of like, there's so much in here, but some things that I felt like God was just ministering to my heart with this passage, man, one, when it starts off saying, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, and I was reminded of just how, even in some of my truest attempts to just do a thing from a good place, a good heart, I'm like, no, God, I genuinely just have a desire to do a good thing because I know this is a good thing. I know this is pleasing to you. But then even in the midst of that, how often I'll still recognize, sometimes in retrospect usually, how even then, selfish ambition may have crept in there. It may not have started from that, but eventually, at some point, it kind of crept in there where you're doing a thing for the right reason, and then someone acknowledges that and to begin to honor you or to praise you in some sense or whatever, and then you'll find a part of your heart wanting that, wanting that praise, or then it may be mentioned where the credit goes somewhere else, but then a part of your heart, even if you don't act on it, and I don't want to just project this on you because this is something that I'm noticing or that I noticed recently in me, then when the credit goes somewhere else, it's like there's something in your heart that wants to be like, no, I did that.

No, that was me. You know what I mean? And it's this idea of like, wow, that's what the selfish ambition or the conceit looks like in me. Right? You know you're doing a good thing. You're knowing that you're doing a thing well, and maybe you're getting a sense of praise or something, or there's honor to be captured in that, and if it goes somewhere else, something in you stirs up, or you're looking for that, whatever the case may be. That's just something that I notice, and I don't always, very rarely do I act on it, but I notice it's there, and it's just, I don't know, it just disturbs me more and more. Like I've shared with you before, like the more, you know, you're just walking with God, like some of these things, they just become to, they just begin to just be unsettling in you. It's not always a matter of like the outward sin that you're doing. It's like you begin to like wrestle with some of these things internally, and that's one of the ways that I recognize that the selfish ambition or the conceit kind of wells up in me. It goes on to say, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves, and there's just something so like, that feels like nourishing to my soul when I think of that. Like if I could just get in this posture, Lord, where like I can just freely think of others as more than me, not from a place of like unworthiness, not from a place of like low self-esteem, but to be confident enough to have such a Christ-centered confidence that I can then esteem others. I can then treat others in a way that's pleasing to you more significant than myself, like to place myself in a lesser space. or whatever, for the sake of others, for your glory, you know what I mean? As a representation of you, I love how it goes on to say, it says, Christ Jesus who thought, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. It says that we are called to have this mind

among ourselves, the same as Christ Jesus had, where Jesus, he was fully, like he had full right to, you know, he was God, you know what I mean? In the flesh, but in that he still in obedience took on this posture of a servant for the betterment of all of us, for the betterment of all mankind. This is how we're able to be reconciled back to God by him taking on the form of a servant. And it's like, God, grow my heart in that, this willingness to just take on the form of a servant, to get off of what may even be rightfully mine, but to step aside from that for the betterment of others. Lord, grow my heart in that. That's a desire that I want to have as I'm reading this in the scriptures and as I'm seeing Jesus model this, Lord, help me in this. Help me to become someone who is just so selfless. Show me people, give me opportunities to grow in this and grow my heart in it, to do like actual things, you know what I'm saying? Actual things to place people before me, to give me like tangible, actionable steps to like place people before me and may that also just produce this increase in my heart of just selflessness and grow me as a servant. That's something that I just feel pressed on my heart like as of recent more and more as I'm, as I'm, as God is talking to me about this humility thing, like I'm having to look at it, you know, the, from all angles. And with this being one of those verses that really speaks to that, it's like, okay, Lord, this is an area where I know I could use some growth in. And I don't know what that looks like for you. I don't know what you dying to yourself and placing someone else, you know, like is above yourself, right? To, to treat, to, to, to, to view someone else is more significant than yourself. And hear me, this is not like a, a, um, this is in a sense of like just low self-esteem. This is this, it's not that it's not, Oh, everybody's better than me. And I'm lesser than it's, it's not that it's, it's for the betterment of people, Lord, me becoming selfless according to your will, according to your glory for your glory, right? Like help me to become more selfless in this. I don't know where you are in your walk or how this passage may speak to you or what it may trigger in you, you know, possibly. So I want to be sensitive to that. Um, because I know we live in a world where we really, some of us are just really dealing with certain kinds of oppressions and things like that. So this can be triggering to you, but hear me, that's not what Jesus is preaching here. He's not condoning oppression. What he's doing is it's just this, it's this posture of selflessness that he embodied like

to perfection. He, he embodied to death on the cross, right? Like to that, to, to, to that extent. And it's just something for us all to just kind of take and, and, and, and allow God to not treat it so much as like a standard or a measuring stick. Cause none of us will live up to that, but recognizing like how far we are from this standard of perfection that Jesus is and knowing that his grace covers us, but also seeing this as an example to be like, Lord, help me to grow in this. Thank you for your grace that covers me for where I'm, where I fall short, but still help me to grow in this, to become more selfless, to be a better reflection of Jesus, um, on this earth, to people, because that's what we're called to do, to live as Christ, to die as God. That's all I got for y'all today. Have a blessing.