This is Part 2. See also Part 1 that leads into this.
He mocks proud mockers but shows favour to the humble and oppressed.
Proverbs 3:34 NIV
To have Christ enthroned in our lives means unseating the pride that sat there before. And pride is keen to display its splendour — through us expressing and insisting on our opinions.
What is your story about coming to know God personally? You may remember, as I do, the struggle that went on in trying to make a response to the Good News. I came up with every reason I didn’t need to be born again, from the hypocrisy evident in the church (fair reasoning ) to my ritual initiation and living in a country that espoused Christianity as its established religion (false reasoning).
The point is, the “I” in me — my ego — didn’t want to bend and defer. Until it did, and then I saw a whole lot I hadn’t been able to see before. Not quite a window into heaven, but certainly turning a light on in dark room and being able to see where things were.
We all start by being guided by ‘our science’ — led what we know. It’s a fair starting point, but not a good continuation. The Christian move should come easy because we get a lot of practice at it. We take an early decision that we have come to the end of what we know and what we think. Only then, and prayerfully, will real wisdom get the upper hand and change our perspective.
The Lord is gracious to the humble…
Proverbs 3:34 in The Passion Translation
God’s grace and favour flow to the meek…
God has grace and favour for those who are His. Divine Holy Spirit-inspired wisdom is part of that grace and favour. We can get God’s leading in a situation but it absolutely depends on us needing it. And we can’t make that case convincingly while we are still trying out what we think we know.
I knew a man who could not ask for directions. If he was lost, on a country crossroads where all the roads look the same, He would avoid passers by and try every way, then come back, before looking for a map.
That’s like us with God. We try every way, rather than ask Him, or see what Bible verse might pop up to be a map to us. It’s easier to just try what you know, but it’s quicker and better to be humble, and ask.
The essence of what keeps us from knowing God is independence, and He calls it sin. Once we realise we were MADE for relationship, and it’s a lie that it is restrictive and keeps us from satisfaction — we ask, and we receive.
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