"A Self Centered Life"

"For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful." (Psalms 36:2) Aside from the fact that heart is desperately wicked, we have this notion of being far more important than we really are; sometimes taking it to the point of pure hatefulness towards others, especially those that seem to be competing with our important self centered life. Everything might be perfectly fine in our life, until someone steps into that arena we have designed for the protection of our self and our ego; then it's fighting time, and no one gets out of that ring until somebody is knocked out. If you don't know what I am rambling on about, then maybe I should slow it down a little, and let's look at a couple things being said here today; remembering that David is speaking about "The wickedness of Man", and relating that in a simulcast to "The Goodness of God"; showing not only the sharp contrast between our heart and God's, but also showing us that God's great mercy and grace are more than enough to cancel out "The Wickedness of Man". The word "flattereth", although it might appear to mean 'to flatter', it has a much deeper meaning, more to the point of dividing or apportioning wealth or power to one's self, thereby making self more important than anyone else. Jesus spoke to this several different times, but I think the simplest example that He gave was the one about entering a wedding, found in Luke 14:8-11, where He spoke about humility; the general point of what He was saying was that we should be humble of heart, not lifting ourselves up over other people, and He uses the example of entering a wedding banquet and taking the highest seat, as if you deserve to be seated there; because when you do, you will be asked to move when someone more honorable than you enters the room. This actually needs to carry over into many areas of our lives, especially when it comes to our ability to live a life of being filled with the Spirit of God... "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such here is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affection and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another." (Galatians 5:22-26)