Pride and Arrogance

God often lays a Scripture or meditation thought before me early in the day and cuts into my life. As only He can, God reveals areas that are not entirely selfless, not entirely humble, not entirely loving, not entirely pure.

“If indeed it be necessary, O Lord, to bury the workman, that my work may be finished by other hands, help me never to think of myself as indispensable. May I be content to die with my work undone, knowing that my task is to work at the fulfillment of Thy purposes, not to work them out.” - Anonymous 

It is the pride within me that causes me to take on more than God intends - more than He has called me to accomplish on my own. It is the pride within me that drives me to “do” one more thing while neglecting the best thing. It is the pride within me that deceives me into thinking I am more important - and perhaps indispensable.

Lord God, forgive me. Lord God, continue to cut into my life and reveal my prideful arrogance.

Where is God cutting into your life this morning? What is God revealing to you today?

#preparetheway

Morning Star's Fall

Once upon a time everything in the universe was perfect!

There was a good King who ruled from His Throne.

He was worshiped, and there was no one or no thing like Him.

He had one Son and He was just as good as His Father, the King. 

When the King was worshiped, His Son was worshiped too.

 

Everyone in the Kingdom served them – not because they had to but because they wanted to – out of love for the King and His Son.

The Father and Son had raised up three worshipers above the rest; their names were “Gift, Morning Star, and Messenger”.

 

Everything in the universe was perfect.

 

When The King and His Son were worshiped, Gift, Morning Star, and Messenger would worship them together with all the other worshipers

 

Yet Morning Star began to wonder why he wasn’t being worshiped.

And Morning Star began to look down on The King’s Son.

He asked himself why The King’s Son was given more honor than him.

 

One afternoon Morning Star stood up to the King and to His Son.

Morning Star refused to worship The King and rebelled against Him.

 

Pride had built up in Morning Star, he thought he deserved to be King.

He told The King to step down, to get off His throne and let him rule.

 

The King had to cast Morning Star out of the perfect Kingdom where Morning Star remains even today – allowing his pride to control him.

 

The prophet Isaiah wrote about Morning Star; How you have fallen from heaven,

morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the realm of the dead to the depths of the pit. (Isaiah 14:12-15)

 

Morning Star now goes by a different name – we know him as Satan. Satan tries to tell us that we deserve more than we have. Satan tries to tell us that we are more important than others. Satan tries to tell us that we are more important than God.

King of the Pride

Tomorrow morning I will be preaching on the topic of pride. It occurred to me today that a group of Lions is called a pride. Perhaps I was thinking of this after our recent visit to the St. Louis zoo.

However, it also occurred to methat the lien is known as the king of the jungle. And that is what pride does to us as well. Pride builds up and makes us believe that we are King (or queen) - first of our own lives, then of everything.

We must be careful not to let pride build up in our lives to the point where we believe that we are King (or queen) of anything.

He is in control

I read this morning in "My Utmost for His Highest"

"If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, He will give you the first sign on His intimacy - silence."

Our church family enjoys many of the benefits and blessings that members of a mega-church might never find. We know one another on a first-name basis, we share prayer requests and praises on a weekly basis, we share in meals with one another at the church and our homes on a regular basis. I truly enjoy being the Pastor of this church body and consider it a true blessing to belong to this family.

Our average attendance on a Sunday morning is around 70. I spoke last week about being "content" with the size of our church family from the aspect of being complete, lacking no one, while at the same time being discontent with the number of people within our community and the world that do not know Christ or have a church home of their own. This is a wonderful concept and one that our church family embraced. Yet, as the Pastor, I found it very difficult to buy into my own words. You see, I want our church to grow, I want to see the seats packed every time we gather together, I want to see our numbers climb at an alarming rate, so much so that people within our community take notice and want to join in a become a part of it.

This past week we had 59 in our Sunday morning worship service. As I came to the church this morning I was a bit down, much like our numbers were yesterday. Yet these words from my devotional hit me where I needed it the most, MY PRIDE!

The question I must ask is: Why do I have the desire for our church to grow?" Well, I want the church to grow so that Christ may be glorified, so that His name is brought honor, and so that others may be brought closer to Him and know Him as their Master and Savior. This should be the desire of our hearts if we are striving to please God and fulfill the ministry that He has called each one of us to.

So, if this is the desire of our hearts we need to be more open to what the Spirit is leading us to. We need to be content with the number we have on a Sunday morning with the understanding that this is who God has called us to minister to on this given day.

If God has called us to a church of 60, 40, 20, or even 10, to Him be the glory! No one knows better than He does who will gain from the ministry done at this time, in the place, and with these words. Know one knows better than He does what gifts we have, what gifts we lack, what lessons we need to learn, and how we need to learn them.

This is just one more time I was reminded that God is in complete control and I need to let go and allow Him to have it. Completely!   

what to write in a "blog

This is a test to see what would flow from my fingertips if I were to start writing a blog on a semi-regular basis. While it is my question as to what I would write, it is also my question as to who would read a blog written by me. Do I have anything to write that others would want to read? Why would I consider my written words to be of any use. What pride it must take for an individual to begin to write a blog. How does a person go from no blog to having a regular blog? What do you do if no one follows your blog? Do you keep writting or do you cease writing and come to the realization that no one really cares about what you have to write in a blog.