Pride and Humility

For your listening pleasure, feel free to enjoy the Artist of the Week while reading this blog.  I also encourage you to enjoy him when you can simply take in and reflect on his lyrics and music without distraction.

There are those times that pride unwittingly builds up within a person, and it has recently built up in me.  Satan is crafty, and I am more wicked than I know, which is why the body of believers is so necessary in sanctification because they see the areas of our life that we have turned a blind eye too.  "Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety" (Prov. 11:14), and these "counselors" range from people directly in our lives to sermons to the books we read, and it is from a book that this rebuke came, Knowing God by J.I. Packer to be exact.

As Packer brings the reader into the forthcoming study of the Triune God he reminds the reader of the need for humility, quoting Paul he says, “knowledge puffs up” (1 Cor. 8:1).  If one’s growth “in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” does not lead one to increasing humility due to the continued realizations of God’s awesome nature and character, then one’s study of God is in vain.

Cut down, realizing I had indeed allowed knowledge to “puff me up,” forgetting who God really is and that no matter how much I know I still “see in a mirror dimly [and only] know in part” (1 Cor. 13:12).  Furthermore, whatever knowledge I gain ought to lead me into greater Christlikeness (Rom. 12:2).

Praying that God would again restore me to a state of humility is one that is a tad frightening to pray because you know that God will do so, and you know that it is either by trial or discipline that Christlike humility will be restored.  Right now, it is confession and repentance.  A good friend has told me there is rebuke coming.  As I reflected in the situation and after, I said, “Thank you God for leading me back to humility that I may rightly serve you.”  What other response is there when we as Christians are told,

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:6-7),

And,

“‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’”  It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons…He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.  For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:5-7, 10-11).

So, I seek humility to stand before God as His creation, as His son, being reminded of the prayer of Francis Chan, “God, make me more like Jesus Christ no matter what it takes.”