Seat of Honor

Been thinking about this. Also, saw a few posts regarding a similar topic. 

You want the seat of honor? Be first to have a servant and submissive heart, inwardly. Motives pure. Not in appearance only. 

It's not always easy, to serve first. The "only" one to "get it". 

To serve, and expecting it to be reciprocated will typically lead to a letdown. You can't demand or manipulate others to serve or submit. It has to be in them. You can surround yourself with like-minded people, though. If you have to demand or manipulate them to do it, you'll join misery, and will continue to have to demand or manipulate them.  

Demanding is not the same as commanding. One, you have to force. The other, the parties will soften because of your righteous actions, serve or submit on their own. Love and live to be the person that serves first without manipulation and demand. The pure-hearted will return in kind. The wounded and or rebellious, cannot and will not. 

Jesus said, “Come to think of it, you are going to drink my cup. But as to awarding places of honor, that’s not my business. My Father is taking care of that.” When the ten others heard about this, they lost their tempers, thoroughly disgusted with the two brothers. So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, “You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: HE CAME TO SERVE, NOT BE SERVED—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.”

Matthew 20:23‭-‬28 MSG