Day 261, Year 1

Do You Long for the Attention of Others?

… “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues.” (Matthew 23:6 NASB)

Those who enjoy boasting about their knowledge also seem to like being the center of attention in a crowd. As today’s verse indicates, they love the place of honor and the chief seats. These privileged positions grant them a certain degree of right to speak. Often, they prefer talking to listening. Since they hear the Word without doing, they likely experience a sense of inadequacy and feel deprived, empty, and sad when they are alone. They therefore seek comfort and fulfillment externally or affirmation in various communities. These people also tend to enjoy the feeling of being needed. They look for places where they are valued, using the Bible or related knowledge as a selling point, and find fulfillment in the affirmation or approval of others. Contrarily, the wise love listening more than speaking, and are content with doing what God commands. Believers prefer to always joyfully focus on the Lord Jesus.

Do you crave to be valued or superior? If so, what does this reflect about your underlying mentality? Alternatively, you may need to ask yourself whether you feel inferior or have low self-esteem, which leads you to expect privileges from others. Why do you, if you really have low self-esteem? Is it because you are making wrong comparisons with others? If we feel inferior because we are disobeying God, this is a correct and healthy feeling. The key is to change and make ourselves obedient to God. Low self-esteem could be derived from comparing ourselves to others, but it is usually misguided and detrimental. Some believers want to feel special compared to other believers, so they ask for special favors or blessings from God. But why do they have this need? Is it the wrong mentality of wanting to be superior compared to others?

Perhaps you feel ordinary, believing that you must receive special attention to affirm your worth. But why not embrace being an ordinary yet excellent believer in the eyes of the Lord? When Jesus calls us by our names and leads us individually, in fact, each of us will surely feel special. Those who have been blessed with wisdom and power by the Lord are by no means ordinary. Such feelings of being ordinary may reflect a lack of focusing on the intimate relationship with the Lord, or the grace and the unique experience that come from Him. Is having the presence and favor of the Lord not more pleasing than the place of honor and chief seats among people?

Reflection questions:

1) Do you long to be valued by someone? If so, how would you want to be fulfilled?

2) Do you struggle with the problem of inferiority or low self-esteem? If so, where did these feelings come from? And how would you deal with them?