Humility – The Truth About One's Self

"Let the righteous strike me, it shall be a kindness, and let him rebuke me, it shall be as excellent oil, let my head not refuse it." Psalm 141:5 Only a truly humble person could bring to God a prayer like this. He is so intent on doing right before the Lord that he actually prays that a righteous person be sent to him to point out where he is wrong, or where he may be unaware of hidden sin. We are a fallen people, a people whose first reaction to any accusation is hostility and anger, "how dare he say such a thing to me!" ...and then we bring to mind anything negative that we can say about that person in retaliation. Isn't it true? But the truly humble person is so concerned with being right with God and wanting to be told wherever he or she is missing it, that he is willing to receive a rebuke from a righteous person… "Faithful are the wounds of a friend..." Proverbs 27:6 And while this humble man prays to be shown any error in his way and is welcoming of a rebuke, yet for himself he prays for protection from his own words, that he might not hurt anyone else. "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips." Psalm 141:3 So the humble man/woman knows only too well that the weakest part of himself is his tongue and realizing that, he asks for protection from his own mouth. "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell." James 3:6 Truly, truly, the tongue IS a world of iniquity. Indeed, how many evils are brought about in this world by misuse of the tongue? How many times have we crushed a person with our words? How many times have we afflicted our children with hateful words? How many lives have had doubt cast upon them because of our gossip? And many times we don't even realize that we're offending God in what we speak. How we deceive ourselves! It behooves us then as people truly wanting to be pleasing to God, that we ask to be shown any point on which we're missing it. This can only come through prayer, from humbling one's heart before God and asking to be shown any area of error or evil, especially when they are secret and covered over inside, for the Lord knows our failings, and every secret thing is plain to him. Let us therefore humble ourselves before him and pray to be protected from our own selves. "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression." Psalm 19:12-13

God Grants The Victory For Us In Our Battles

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy Name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits;" Psalm 103:1-2 Among his benefits is the fact that those who are his will live a life totally different from those who are in the world. To those who are in the world: you're on your own. To those who are the Lord's, it will be an adventure. You'll find yourself out on the battlefield, and you'll find that the enemies are "giants." Victory over those giants will be a joy the world just cannot supply. "For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to hold fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves." Deuteronomy 11:22-23 Those "greater and mightier nations" the Jews faced as they came to the promised land -- were giants. And this is what we will face too. Yes we will encounter giants, enemies greater and mightier than we are. Israel was constantly facing giants, and that's a picture of what our walk with the Lord will always be; what we are confronted with will be far greater and mightier than we are. BUT - we are guaranteed the victory over them ... IF ...we carefully keep all that the Lord commands us to do. The steps of the believer are ordained by God, and he will never lead him to a place without providing what is needed to succeed in that place. We are never, EVER, left on our own. But this will be a call to faith because the challenge will always be greater than what we can handle, and we will constantly need to be in the will of God knowing that that is our everlasting protection. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way." Psalm 37:23 Many believers are familiar with this verse, but there is one word mistranslated. "A good man" is the Hebrew "gever," which would be better translated "warrior." We are to know that we are indeed in warfare, but that our steps have been ordered by God himself. Wherever he brings us, he will grant the victory over all opposing forces if we are abiding in him. "No man shall be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as he has said to you." Deuteronomy 11:25 But the victory necessitates that one be in good standing with the Lord, that there remains no rebellion in his life, that he is totally obedient to the Captain of the Hosts. What soldier on the battlefield would dare refuse the command of the General? If that's so obvious in the natural, how much more necessary is it in the spiritual warfare we are in? Obedience is crucial! King David was in such a conflict when he stood against the giant Goliath. Picture that arrogant Goliath taunting the Israelites. Forty days, morning and night, he'd strut before them and taunt them with insults, and they were terrified. Then along came David. He was the "man after God's own heart," and he did not fear the giant. Listen to the confidence in his voice: "For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 1 Samuel 17:26 David went and stood before the giant and said to him: vs 35: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." David took a stone and toppled that giant, and then - and this is so great - he killed the giant with the giant's own sword! Sort of like Haman hanging on the gallows that he built for Mordecai (Esther 7:10). The Israelites feared entering the promised land, the battlefield, because they cried that there were giants in that land. They had complained at every step forward and the Lord was sick of it. For that, the Lord waited until every last one of them died out, and then Joshua led their sons against the giants and took the land. The Lord looks for Davids and Joshuas to carry out his will. Those who live in unbelief won't dare to venture into that minefield. But those who know their Lord will proceed because they know that it is the Lord who sent them, therefore the Lord will obtain the victory. Do not hang back because of fear, otherwise you'll never know the savor of the victory and the awe in which you will stand before God with a heart filled with praise.

It's Not Rejection - It's A Call Upwards

"The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise." Proverbs 15:31 A rebuke, whether it comes from the Lord or from a person, hurts. A person's reaction will always be anger, a refusal to receive it, and a self-justification bringing to mind all the reasons it's not true. That's human nature. We go off by ourselves to lick our wounds, and form all kinds of accusations in our hearts toward the one who wounded us. But the wise will sit down and go over what was said seeking to know if there's any truth in it. He must take the person who spoke it out of the picture, and concentrate solely on what was said. Many times, careful examination will shed light on a fault or a sin that the Lord wants to address. Having been there, (many times), I've learned that the rebuke of the Lord is given for a purpose and that purpose is for our good. It is NOT a rejection, it's a call upward. It is very humbling to sit before the Lord having to acknowledge something he reveals that hurts our pride, and it's terribly hard to admit to what is said. But I ask, would you want it any other way? Would you want to continue in the sin or the trait the Lord is pointing to? Perhaps, if you're new in the Lord, yes. But if you've walked with him awhile and have experienced his rebukes, and if you've cooperated with him and dealt with it, then you know the incomparable relief that lifts from you when you break through. The peace. The joy. And you'll find his arms open to you when you run to him for a hug. He'll give you that hug, because he's even more joyful than you are over the fact that you humbled yourself and received the rebuke and dealt with it. vs 32: "He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding." The greatest obstacle to breaking through to freedom is our pride. We are constantly seeking affirmation and resisting correction. We want to think we're great, but the Word of God tells us we're not. We push forward seeking self-esteem, but in doing so we're denying the truth about ourselves. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" Jeremiah 17:9 This has to be the starting place, coming to accept the truth about ourselves, that we are not great, but that in fact we dwell in a fallen human nature that the Lord calls "deceitful" and "wicked." To pat oneself on the back is deceit. We're lying to ourselves. We're trying to tell ourselves something that is simply not true. The truth is that we're faulty, we're defective, and our fallen human nature is “desperately wicked.” There's not one of us whose fallen human nature is "good." Not one. “There is none righteous, no, not one;" Romans 3:10 When we come to the Lord, we have to start here, acknowledging the truth. And once one has done this a few times, he comes to the realization that this is the way OUT of our condition and into praise. From the day one is born again, a process begins inside - changing us, recreating us, restoring us, establishing us in all righteousness. It's a long process and can take a lifetime, but we won't even begin until we can go back to the beginning and grapple with the truth about ourselves. "The way of life winds upward for the wise, that he may turn away from hell below." Proverbs 15:24 The transformation is the work of the Lord as he works out his plan in us. But it has to start with humility, and the person who starts here will be on his way to knowing the wisdom of God. Humility has to come first, but it leads to honor and to the joy of the Lord, a joy some have never yet known because they can't let go of their pride, they refuse to admit the truth, they refuse to surrender. But once they "get it" and turn their lives over to their Creator, the sky's the limit. vs 33: "The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility." "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and HE will lift you up." James 4:10