2013-08-16
Good Morning Dear Ones,
You’ll remember that last week the discussion of our Covenant Partner’s strength and power being shared to some extent with all His covenant partners is revealed in our weakness. At the time, I mentioned that humility must be a part of that discussion, and we looked at 2 COR 12: 7-9 in the process. Please review that passage, if you can’t remember it. When we are prideful and assign strength we have to ourselves, we are going against the true Source of it, which is the Father through the Son and the Holy Spirit. To Him belongs the glory, not us [PS 115: 1]. PR 16: 18, “Pride goes before destruction; a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Oftentimes when God wants to use us for His purposes and pride in our own accomplishments is our approach, He will allow the adversary to assail us in some way, such as an illness, a loss, or a severe disappointment, for example. This is to break through that foolish pride. It surely happened to me in ’06 when I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and went through 5 ½ hours under the surgeon’s scalpel. Thankfully, my tumor, although huge, was benign. I awakened from anesthesia realizing the most important thing in my life was my relationship with my divine Covenant Partner first and, then, my other human covenant partners. It also forced me to realize that any talents or accomplishments I had were solely due to Him. God had more work for me to do for Him.
Although I had been raised in our traditionally conservative Jewish home, pride and forgiveness weren’t high priorities when me and my siblings were being reared. We were a competitive and at times combative family, with a rearing heavily stressed on education. While there is nothing wrong with the latter, there is something terribly wrong (in God’s sight) with the lack of forgiveness and humility. God needs us to be humble and forgiving in order for us to do His work and receive His blessings. We are told to be humble and forgiving in our interactions with others. Pride gets in the way of God’s agenda, and if we are either in or approaching the end times, we need to learn humility now! God makes His attitude on this clear in PR 16: 19, “Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.” We shouldn’t forget MT 5: 3 either. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will inherit the Kingdom.” We need to be humble before God, and before other humans as well. We will receive more guidance that way, if we are listeners who stick to living godly lives. This means taking action when it’s called for, and listening quietly when that’s appropriate. The matter of forgiveness is dealt with in COL 3: 13, “Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else; you must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you.” Thankfully, I’m not given to holding grudges, although others in our family are. The breaking of my foolish pride is a work in progress, and that I know well.
Our God tells us, in RO 12: 16, “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” Living up to this command isn’t always easy, because it calls on us to connect with people who are not like-minded with us. I can’t help but think of my friend, Steve Cohen, who is the founder and president of Apple of His Eye Mission Society inSt. Louis,MO. This organization has a goal to reach out to traditionally Jewish people and others with the Gospel of Christ, sharing with them His message of salvation and peace. Just last week, he and other volunteers were at the Gay Pride Festival inSt. Louis. They dealt with opposition initially from the police and the leader of the Festival. However, God gave them the strength, preparation, and the right words to say to effectively deal with this opposition. Steve and his group eventually acquired contact information from a number of people attending. Naturally, this doesn’t mean every one of the contacts will come to faith in the Lord, but it does mean that further conversations can ensue. By baby steps-that’s the way hard work is done. Prideful, conceited language won’t cut it.
Let’s think about God’s message in 1 PET 4: 7-8. “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” It’s hard to remain angry with someone who counters your vitriol with patience, self-control, and a loving attitude. If we take the time to use kind, respectful language, rather than answering anger/rejection with the same, some people will choose to take the high road and listen to what we are saying. If we know that we are speaking with traditionally Jewish people, then we know that person has been raised to reject Jesus Christ. So we can choose to substitute the word “Lord” or “God” for “Jesus.” That’s choosing not to use incendiary language. This enables the discussion to continue. The phrase, “The end of all things is near,” serves as sufficient motivation for us not to waste time in getting about our efforts to share the Gospel with those who might potentially be believers in Christ. One never knows which present rejecter will eventually become a believer. 1 PET 5: 6-7 gives us a reminder of God’s will for our own behavior. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
PRAYER: O Lord, our human foibles all too often trip us up in moving our spiritual maturity forward. As our Covenant Partner, You are the strongest of all Adversaries of evil and Supplier to us of strength, courage, and patience. We must humble ourselves before You, confess those sins that reveal ugliness and weakness. In doing so, You forgive us and guide us to righteousness. It’s hard to deal effectively with rejection and opposition from others. But we must remember that we were once Your enemies, and yet, You brought us to faith in the One and only Person Who could, in His sacrificial giving of His physical life on the cross, granted us salvation and eternal forgiveness [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25; RO 5: 9-11]. We read and take in the wise words You gave Paul in 1 TIM 2: 3-4, “This [that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness] is good, and pleases God our Savior, Who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” We must never question that You are the Source (as our Covenant Partner) of any strength and power that we have with tough people or difficult situations. We are told to “endure hardship like a good soldier of Jesus Christ with others” [2 TIM 2: 3], for “God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power in love and of self-discipline” [2 TIM 1: 7]. Any courage and faith we have comes directly from You. We acknowledge You and bow before You in awe and reverence. We beseech You to give us the right words to say coupled with the wisdom and right timing to say them. We ask You to guide us to potential believers, so that we can encourage them to become our covenant partners, partners in salvation and peace. These things we say while we offer You thanks and praise for all the good You do in using Your strength and power, in Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: God uses Satan at times to become His messenger. Satan’s work is disease, sorrow, disappointment, doubt, and loss. These are all things common to the human earthly experience. However, our Covenant Partner grants us the strength and power to work through these negative things, gaining more strength and power to do good in His sight. God dwells with believers today, just as He did in the past. Next week, we’ll look at some of the ways God uses Satan as His tool to get His work accomplished by over-comers. If anyone reads the questions God asks Job in JOB 38, he can’t help but begin to be reminded of some of the extent of our Covenant Partner’s strength and power. The most practical-minded person would decide that he wants to be on God’s team, if he had even this tiny glimpse of God’s amazing power. Our God is not in the business of intimidation, however. Instead, He is in the business of building people up in genuine ways, though their own discovery of what they can do-what He created them to be. Obviously, it would be stupid for a man to try to beat up an elephant. And yet, a self-disciplined and patient man can train an elephant to do his bidding. This is especially true if he treats the elephant with loving kindness seeing to the animal’s needs. The elephant retains his ability to trample the man, but he doesn’t want to use it. Our God has no evil in Him. We can be encouraged to become better and better in God’s eyes by living lives of righteousness, prayer, study of His word, humility, forgiveness, and demonstration of the fruits of the Spirit [GA 5: 23-24]. Our God deserves our forever praise and thanks!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2013. All Rights Reserved.
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