This "Look to Christ" is featured in our episode: The Prison of Self-Preservation
Friend, if you’re anything like me, there are days when your heart turns inward.
You start protecting your time, your comfort, your preferences.
You cling to your plans.
You tell yourself you deserve to look out for “number one.”
And at first, it feels like freedom.
“No one can disappoint me if I don’t need anyone.”
“No one can hurt me if I keep my distance.”
But give it time, and that kind of self-protection becomes a prison.
Selfishness doesn’t lead to freedom; it leads to loneliness.
It isolates us in our own fears and assumptions.
It slowly convinces us that life would be easier without the weight of other people.
But then…
Lift your eyes.
Look to Christ.
Look at the One who had every right to turn inward, to guard Himself, to stay distant.
Yet He moved toward us.
He stepped into our mess, our pain, our need.
He loved us not because we were lovely, but because He is love.
He gave Himself, fully, freely, joyfully.
And here is the miracle:
When you see His love for you — I mean really see it — something in your heart softens.
Fear loses its grip.
Self-preservation loosens its hold.
And the Spirit begins to whisper:
“You are safe. You are wanted. You are known.
You don’t have to protect yourself anymore.”
Loved people love people.
Secure people move toward others.
Those who have been embraced by Christ’s compassion find strength to open their arms too.
The joy you’re longing for is not found in living for yourself.
It’s found in giving yourself — not to earn love, but because you already have it in Christ.
It’s found in community, in the messy, beautiful, Spirit-filled act of loving others as He has loved you.
So if you feel yourself pulling away,
If you sense selfishness creeping in,
If isolation feels easier than intimacy:
Pause.
Breathe.
And look to Christ.
Look to the Savior who came near.
Look to the Friend who laid down His life for you.
Look to the Shepherd who carries you, forgives you, and holds you fast.
And as you behold His love,
ask Him to free you from the fear that keeps you alone.
Ask Him to fill you with the courage and joy that only come from loving others in His name.
Because in Christ, you will never run out of love to give.
You are drawing from an infinite well.
His love for you becomes His love through you.
Look to Christ,
and find joy not in self-preservation,
but in self-giving,
the kind of joy that only grows stronger when it is shared.
