Look Deep

My hubby sent me this quote today by a scholar, John Owen:

"The person who understands the evil in his own heart is the only person who is useful, fruitful, and solid in his beliefs and obedience. Others only delude themselves and thus upset families, churches, and all other relationships. In their self-pride and judgment of others, they show great inconsistency."

Humility comes when we recognize, dig deep and embrace the truth of who we are. We are nothing. Filthy rags. Evil. Empty. Broken. Sinful, beyond our recognition. And the only thing good in us is Jesus, if in fact we've asked for His forgiveness and asked Him to be Lord of our lives. And even with Christ in us, we have to continually remember that we are still absolutely nothing; He is the only thing good in us. And anything good that comes out of us is only the fruit of the Holy Spirit, not because of something we've done. So we bow down before our saving, forgiving Lord.  Continually recognizing who we really are, keeps us in this humble position.

James 4:6-10 holds the key to humility.
But He gives greater grace. Therefore He says:

      God resists the proud,
      but gives grace to the humble.^[e]

⁷ Therefore, submit to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people! ⁹ Be miserable and mourn and weep. Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Do you see what God writes for us? God, through James, tells us that He resists us if we are proud, but gives grace to the humble. And our Precious, Saving Father lays out the humility blueprints for us to follow...

                 Submit to God

                 Resist the Devil

                 Draw near to God

                 Cleanse our hands... recognizing our sinful actions

                 Purify our hearts...recognizing we are double-minded (sin of heart and mind)

                 Be miserable and mourn and weep...over recognizing who we really are and what we've    

                              really done

                 Change our laughter to mourning, our joy to sorrow....brokenness and grief over sin

                 Humble ourselves before the Lord

Then, He exalts us. Hear that? He exalts us! ...To be exalted by the Father... can anyone really describe this?!!

 

These Truths apply to every. single. follower of Jesus. So for us to think for a moment that: 'we've got our pride under control' or 'have the pride problem beat' or 'don't have day-in and day-out sin issues', we are deceiving ourselves.

 

Lets look deep and as Owen writes, 'understand the evil in his own heart' so that we can '...walk humbly with our God' (Micah 6:8) and enjoy the wonderful exaltation of walking rightly with our Father!

 

Psalm 25:9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Psalm 18:27 For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.