It's so easy to live a life that revolves solely around a single agenda: our own. Everything in the surrounding culture encourages us to create the life that we want, to see the fulfillment of our own goals as the ultimate prize, to stand apart from the crowd by being truly selfish.

Of course, Christianity suggests otherwise. It tells us that meeting our own desires is not the path to godly success. Jesus quotes from the ancients in Deuteronomy and Leviticus when He reminds His audience precisely what we ought to value most: to love God with all of our energy and passion, and to love others as much as ourselves.

Selfless living does not mean placing others on an equal footing with ourselves, handing out the compassion in step with the self-indulgence. True Christianity—to be near the kingdom of God, to understand the very fibers that hold together the essence of Christianity, to put our faith into bold practice—means handing over our own agendas in place of serving God and others. It might not be sexy or culturally on-message, but it’s there, in plain and simple truth.

This devotion is adapted from an article in RELEVANT magazine. Get your own copy.