“For all these things My hand has made, and so all these things have come into being [by and for Me], says the Lord. But this is the man to who I will look and have regard: he who is humble and of a broken and wounded spirit, and who trembles at My word and reveres My commands.” Isa 66:2 (Amplified)
The common man’s way of defining the prevalent effect of gravity is encapsulated in the saying that whatever goes up must come down. This means that irrespective of who you are and whatever heights you might attain and in whatever sphere, gravity will one day catch up with you. If you don’t have Jesus Christ, the grave is only the starting point to a far worse fate – the depth of hell. So, how do you defy this gravity and free yourself to experience unimaginable spiritual heights? It is by dying to self.
Structural and civil engineers know that if you plan to build high, you must dig deep, and better still, you must find bedrock on which to build your edifice. This is also true of the spiritual life. God, the Chief structural engineer, knows that it is necessary for us to first die in order to live. The rebellious natural impulses of the flesh requires taming in the skilful hand of God to remould and reshape us into His perfect image and thus enable us to become like Him in this world. It is only then that we will be able to boldly say along with Apostle Paul, “For as He is, so are we in this world” 1 Jn 4:17 His is a process that is not only tested, but proven to be effective over many generations. Anyone of repute in the bible has passed through and graduated from God’s school of hard knocks, many more are presently enrolled and countless more will enrol in the future. It is the rite of passage to effectiveness in God’s kingdom.
Pride is natural to the human psyche; humility is alien to it. The challenge before us is to be transformed such that we become humble and eschew pride. God wants to turn the natural order of things on its head in our lives so as to enable us accomplish the supernatural in His power. We naturally pride ourselves in our abilities and securities, but God would have us become vulnerable so that we can depend more on His ability and rely more on His grace for our security. This is the reason Paul could say that “For when I’m weak, I am strong”. God wants us to reach the point where we are not content to psychoanalyse or lightly regard His word, but understand that His word is our very lives and hasten to obey it without thinking of the consequence.
The reality is that God’s value system and that of the world are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Consequently, that which God esteems is what the world despises. Self-sufficiency must be replaced by God-sufficiency. This means that if you want God to esteem you, you must be prepared to be reviled by the world. Understand that you are not alone. You are just one in a long line of saints – triumphant and militant, and if you persist, you are destined to receive God’s welcome and hear His word – “Well done my good and faithful servant. Enter into your rest.” Brokenness is a virtue to the holy, but a vice to the spiritually defiled. Choose to be broken and you will live.
Prayer:
Lord, the irony of life is that if I remain strong, I preclude myself from sharing in your strength and thus remain weak. I exchange my limited strength for your strength by becoming weak in the eyes of the world. I submit myself to you today. Do your work of regeneration so that I can truly become as you are in this world. Amen.