Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the
LORD search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his
ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
Continuing Michael’s message
on self”, he writes that the truth of the Word has been turned upside
down. The heart of men and women are deceitful and cannot know the truth
of the Word of God without the spirit. God will solve all the
"why" questions when we come to know his Truth through our Lord Jesus
Christ. We come to an understanding that God is a good, Creator Father. We
may not know His ways, but we know His heart of tender mercy, grace, and loving
kindness.
According to Philippians
2:3-5, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness
of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his
own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus:”
When we come to the
realization that it's not all about me, we will find peace and rest in the
midst of the storm. Jesus said, “Come
unto me all ye that are weak and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”
The attitude of Christ was to look on the things of others, to serve and to
bless them. Jesus emptied himself of the right to His own will; to serve
his Father by gladly serving from a heart of love those whom God had committed
to his keeping.
Philippians 2:6-8 “Who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross.”
A bond servant doesn't serve
his master by law, but by love. Jesus Christ gave up His "right" to Himself
and crucified His own will when He prayed to His Father, "not my will but
thine be done." The paradox of the Christian life says that in order
to gain, you need to lose. Jim Elliot, the missionary to South America
understood this truth. Elliot said before he was martyred, "He is no fool
who gives that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
Humility defeats pride.
Humility frees us from "the insidious preoccupation with self."
Humility says, "Make me a captive Lord, And then I shall be free. Force
me to render up my sword and I shall conqueror be. I sink in life's
alarms, if by myself I stand. Imprison me within thine arms and free shall
be my stand!"
May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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