A Supportive Attitude

Bible Reading: Galatians 6:3

If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody. Galatians 6:3

You need help with a group project. Or you need a friend to stick close when everyone else ditches you. Or you just need someone to hang with because you’re feeling a little low.

Talk about it: Have you ever had a friend respond to your needs in a less-than-caring way? What happened? And how happy would you be with each of these responses?

• One friend says, “Not now, I have stuff to do.”

• Another friend responds, “Sorry, I can’t spare any of my precious time.”

• One friend explains, “I can’t help you right now; I have my own problems.”

• Another friend retorts, “Why would I want to help a dork like you?”

Real friends aren’t often blunt or unkind. Neither are you. Yet all of us easily slide into a me-first attitude unless we continually work on an others-first attitude. God wants to remake our attitudes in two enormous ways:

Makeover 1: Ditch self-centeredness. Being supportive means truly caring. As Galatians 6:3 says, “If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are a nobody.” Alicia caught herself feeling so important and busy that she was above helping others. She worked hard to warm up her chilly attitude toward her friends.

Makeover 2: Dive into humility. Philippians 2:3-4 bans the selfish thinking that always puts yourself first. “Don’t be selfish. … Be humble. . . . Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.” Anthony figured out that he needed to carve out time to find out how his friends were doing and offer help when they needed it. He gulped hard and actually learned to tell his friends he cared about them and wanted to be there for them.

That might sound like a whole lot of giving with no getting. But in Luke 6:38 God says that the more you give to others the more you will receive in return. That’s God’s promise!

TALK: So how do you do at caring? What attitude are you willing to let God remake?

PRAY: God, help us to become more caring, unselfish, and generous in our support for our friends.

ACT: Check out God’s promise in Luke 6:38 of the return on your caring.