Never ask God to humble you. It’s a whole lot easier to humble yourself.
The Bible says that God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. So, I come to Him for a trade-off: the humility of Jesus in exchange for my pride.
When I do, He shows me what He sees in me, so I know what to offer Him for the trade—things such as a tendency to smugness or self-importance or self-righteousness, or a hunger for recognition and admiration.
He doesn’t have to say anything to me. Simply being in His Presence and considering His power and mind-boggling creativity shows me how very little I have to brag about.
I watch the science television channels often, and I am fascinated with what I see. However, I believe that even our greatest scientists come to some erroneous conclusions about the foundations of our cosmos. Try as they may, they can never get to the First Cause through science alone.
There is always the unanswered question, “and where did that come from?”—that first charge of energy— the singularity, from which, they believe, everything else sprang, finally groping its way toward becoming First Blob of Being with the ability to make choices.
When I see pictures of our immense universe, or the infinitesimal cosmos of atomic structure, I am overwhelmed with humility, and with admiration for the Creator of it all, My Father.
galaxy
After looking at some jaw-dropping Hubble telescope pictures, I asked my son a question: Why would God choose this tiny planet, out of countless trillions, and incarnate Himself into something as insignificant as man? He laughed and said, “He did it because He could.”
Even more wonderful than that is the fact that He actually knows every one of us, loves us, and will adopt us into His family through Jesus Christ. If there is a more astounding fact in all of existence, I can’t imagine what it is.
Frankly, when I talk about The Father, I really have little conception of the immensity and force of What I am dealing with. Creator God is a Person, yes, but He is a Spirit who is like a vast, never-ending charge of power, bigger than the universe.
In the past, to see Him, to touch Him, was to die. Not because He is cruel; but simply because of what He is, and what we are.
Then Jesus came. Like an electrical transformer, He gave us God in a form we could comprehend and “plug into.” His infinite Person and power became available to the finite . . . to us.
Yet, in our lack of humility, we forget to fear Him. We keep Him waiting. We ignore His words. We live for ourselves. But He keeps working on us anyway; transforming us by love into the likeness of Jesus. All we have to do on our part is humble ourselves and respond to His availability. Isn’t that amazing?
Lord, I know you are willing to fill me with the wisdom from above. Laying down all my pride and rebellion, I am, finally, willing to receive it. It’s a good exchange: peace, compassion and sweetness for bitterness, self-pity, and all things devilish. I really believe you will do a new and greater work in me day by day. Please, do it Lord and make me like you. I thank you from an expectant and grateful heart.
Written by : Jimmy & Carol Owens
