Why it's good is that God is faithful to answer that prayer. Slowly, I see that He is working in me to cultivate a heart of humility. Philippians 2:3 says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves." All too often, it's been too easy for me to put myself ahead of others, in so many different ways. I've been too willing to keep myself away from others because it was more convenient. I hadn't been cultivating diligence in my life and my heart, diligence to seek the things God desires for me.
That also points to why the pursuit of humility is so painful. Part of cultivating humility is the confession of sin. Lately, it seems like my attitude has been, for lack of a better word, rotten. My thoughts have seemed bitter and hateful, my heart was stirred with bitterness and nastiness. It seems like I've been all too ready to distrust God in trying circumstances. Sometimes, it seems so intense that I've begun to wonder if I'm even saved at all.
I've been so slow to recognize that this may be how God has chosen to work on me. How slow? I just now realized that. The Scriptures attest that God will allow us to be afflicted, though sources demonic or otherwise. Isaiah 48:10 says, "See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction."
This trying time has brought me to God in fervent prayer. Oftentimes, this prayer has come while battling through severe temptation to turn from God and loud, wrathful thoughts. God has been refining me, turning up the heat to draw out the dross. To be cultivate humility, He must remove that which would hinder humility; namely, distrust, and beyond that, pride.
I still find myself deeply troubled by pride in my walk with The Lord. Pride once permeated everything about me, though I certainly had nothing about which to be proud. I still don't, I just can see that, now. My pride led me to shut others away, and I led a dreary, lonely, empty existence that I once saw as inescapable, and became bitterly resigned to a pointless life. Things are different now, since God has saved me. I have love in my a new heart, a love from the One who first loved me and humbled Himself on my behalf. How could I refuse Him? Nothing's come along that's been better, and every good thing I've gained has come from Him.
If anything I've written has been an encouragement to you, then I hope you are encouraged. Honestly, I think God puts it upon my heart to write about these things because I need to be reminded.
I've been so slow to recognize that this may be how God has chosen to work on me. How slow? I just now realized that. The Scriptures attest that God will allow us to be afflicted, though sources demonic or otherwise. Isaiah 48:10 says, "See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction."
This trying time has brought me to God in fervent prayer. Oftentimes, this prayer has come while battling through severe temptation to turn from God and loud, wrathful thoughts. God has been refining me, turning up the heat to draw out the dross. To be cultivate humility, He must remove that which would hinder humility; namely, distrust, and beyond that, pride.
I still find myself deeply troubled by pride in my walk with The Lord. Pride once permeated everything about me, though I certainly had nothing about which to be proud. I still don't, I just can see that, now. My pride led me to shut others away, and I led a dreary, lonely, empty existence that I once saw as inescapable, and became bitterly resigned to a pointless life. Things are different now, since God has saved me. I have love in my a new heart, a love from the One who first loved me and humbled Himself on my behalf. How could I refuse Him? Nothing's come along that's been better, and every good thing I've gained has come from Him.
If anything I've written has been an encouragement to you, then I hope you are encouraged. Honestly, I think God puts it upon my heart to write about these things because I need to be reminded.
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