God’s promise for Week 3:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor 12:9)
Last week we looked at five common barriers to faith. This week we will look at the biggest one of all: Pride. We will spend five days reflecting on the idea of humility, and letting God search our hearts and teach us how to become like little children.
For those who want further Scripture reading each day here are a couple of suggestions:
-Read one Psalm a day and meditate on it.
-Read a chapter or part of a chapter out of Acts or Matthew or Hebrews each day, focusing on the idea of faith.
Day 15
“Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matt 18:3-4
I struggled as I wrote this week’s devotions. I wanted to write about childlike faith. I read the scriptures relating to children over and over again and thought at length about the many characteristics of a child that Jesus may have been referring to in this verse. I made lists, but I kept coming back to the one and only aspect of little children that is actually mentioned in those verses: humility. The Bible doesn’t offer a great long list of what exact child-like characteristic we must imitate, it just says “humble yourself". The more I thought about it, I realized that this one characteristic—humility—is vital; without it, we cannot hope to have a genuine faith in God. On Sunday, Jim challenged us to let God work through us even when we feel inadequate. I realize that I’m letting you all in on a nasty little secret, but I have to admit I don’t struggle very much with feelings of inadequacy or weakness. In fact, I feel pretty confident in my abilities and my giftings. On occasion, I have even entertained the thought (and I’m shuddering as I write this) that God must feel pretty happy to have me on His team. Yikes!! How small I have made the God who created the heavens and the earth!! I don’t know about you, but I need an attitude adjustment. I need to let the truth sink deep into my soul. God gave me the gifts I have and therefore, when stripped of all that He has given me, I am left naked and ashamed. I am a sinner, who, if left to follow my own desires, would be empty and broken and alone. Instead, my life is filled with good things, given to me, not because I’m special and I deserve them, but because He loved me and in his grace He reached out and cleaned up the mess I was making of my life. How many of you can relate to this? Do you sometimes think that God is lucky to have you tithing in the church because of your great income? Are you thinking that nobody else could quite do what you do, and that the church is lucky you are here? Is this getting a bit too honest for you? It is for me.
“‘Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?’ declares the Lord. ‘This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.’" Is 66:2
Who exactly do I think I’m fooling? God sees my heart. He knows my pride. And thankfully, he loves me too much to leave me a slave to it. As we journey through these forty days together, let’s ask God to help us become aware of our pride. It is a scary prayer to pray, but let’s trust that Jesus meant it when He said: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:29
Prayer:
God, pride is holding me back from a deeper faith in you. Help me to decrease in my own eyes so that I can see how big You are.
In Faith:
Add yourself to your list of “hopeless cases"—I did!!
