Proud Kings

For, such is the blindness with which we all rush into self-love that each one of us seems to himself to have just cause to be proud of himself and to despise all others in comparison...The very vices that infest us we take pains to hide from others, while we natter ourselves with the pretense that they are slight and insignificant, and even sometimes embrace them as virtues. If others manifest the same endowments we admire in ourselves, or even superior ones, we spitefully belittle and revile these gifts in order to avoid yielding place to such persons...Thus, each individual, by flattering himself, bears a kind of kingdom in his breast... Let us, then, unremittingly examining our faults, call ourselves back to humility... Now, in seeking to benefit one's neighbor, how difficult it is to do one's duty! Unless you give up all thought of self and, so to speak, get out of yourself, you will accomplish nothing here.
John Calvin - Institutes of The Christian Religion: 3.7.4-5

We are all proud kings within our own bodies, we are all blind to our own faults, the sharper we see them in others, the blinder we are to them in us. Doesn't matter where we are in life, we struggle with our own pride.

I can imagine how silly I would look trying to defend my prideful actions before the divine judge. It cannot be done. His will be done. And He does not wish that we act in self pride but in service to others, to the throne, to His glory.

Today, think about a criticism you recently had of another, and search inside. The more vehement the criticism, the more deeply embedded within you is the same. We do not like what is in us, but it is much easier to criticize others. The Triune God has inexhaustible love resident within the Trinity, and as a result, endless love for us.

Think about that before you step in front of the divine judge to hear about your life. We will all squirm, but how much?

Dedication

Yet the first thing we realize when we do come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatsoever to our natural desires. We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. However, you cannot dedicate what is not yours. There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself...A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus. Never try to make your experience a principle for others, but allow God to be as creative and original with others as He is with you.
Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest: June 13 Devotional

You cannot give what you do not have. yesterday I wrote about we are not our own, talking about Calvin writing in the Institutes. Today it is Chambers. Two very different people bringing very similar thoughts into my head. I have to think about this, I hear the voice of God in my ears, now I need to listen. Since we are His and not our own, we cannot "dedicate" ourselves to Him. We can only pray that He pray that He takes us and allows us to discern His will for us. From that comes the joy that lasts.

It is an intensely personal experience between you and God; it is not the same for two people. Understanding that, and being content with His will for you, without regard for His will for another, is a sign of a high level of christian maturity. God knows what is best for you, stop looking around and look to Him for that answer.

Do not be so proud as to think you can dedicate yourself, offer yourself to God. Be so humble as to beg Him to take you.

We Are Not Our Own

We are not our own: let not our reason nor our will, therefore, sway our plans and deeds. We are not our own: let us therefore not set it as our goal to seek what is expedient for us according to the flesh. We are not our own: in so far as we can, let us therefore forget ourselves and all that is ours. Conversely, we are God's: let us therefore live for him and die for him. We are God's: let his wisdom and will therefore rule all our actions. We are God's: let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal...Let this therefore be the first step, that a man depart from himself in order that he may apply the whole force of his ability in the service of the Lord...From this also follows this second point: that we seek not the things that are ours but those which are of the Lord's will and will serve to advance his glory.
John Calvin - Institutes of The Christian Religion: 3.7.1-2

If we are not our own but God's, what Calvin notes that we are to do should be easy for us: Serve the Lord and advance His glory; but our wishes, wants and desires in the back seat. The fact that we struggle with this is an indication that the sinful self has not let go; pride and arrogance still struggle for dominance in a life which the heart and head knows belongs to God; but the flesh fights it still.

The fact is the flesh may never let fully go; the fact is the fight may continue until your last breath here on this earth. If that is true, just remember, we are not our own but His:

²¹They said to Him, "Caesar's." Then He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."
Matthew 22:21 (NASB)

We need to keep that in mind. Be in the world, not of it. Seek the Lord not praise of others. Strive to put God first in your life, and He will put your life in the order it should be in.

We are not our own. That is a good thing, for we surely make a mess of our own when left to our own.

Pride and Patience

It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we see the activity and mistake panic for inspiration. That is why we see so few fellow workers with God, yet so many people working for God. We would much rather work for God than believe in Him. Do I really believe that God will do in me what I cannot do?...When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He will only do this when His Spirit is at work in you), then you know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as you yourself could be without His grace.
Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest: June 1 Devotional

This guy really does not pull any punches. I love it. Chambers is getting at the heart of our pride and arrogance here. We really think at times if we cannot accomplish something by ourselves, then God could not accomplish it in us. We have to doing and achieving, not waiting in faith and trust.

I am most guilty of this. I am not by nature patient. I feel I need to take the lead, to do it, and then try to make it seem like it was God's will after the fact. I wonder how many times I pray to the Lord but leave the room before He starts to speak so that I never hear what He has to say to me. I wonder, but I know it is a lot.

How convicting to stand in front of the mirror and be shown by God how lost I would be without His grace. Lost in my pride. Lost without my patience to wait on His timing.

How fortunate that He has the patience I lack.

And Just Who Do You Think You Are?

I have had conversations with people, including family members, who have trusted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and they have this vague feeling that they are too sinful, that they are not good enough to come to Christ. We discuss that all are sinners, that none are good enough, walking through verses like Romans 3:10 and 3:23. I have walked away when the conversations needed, troubled with this attitude because it is keeping them from coming into the joy that awaits them through a step of faith and trust.

I want to ask them as a parting comment, "And Just Who Do You Think You Are?", because it is pride getting in the way once again. There is no humility here ("I am not good enough'), there is pride ("I am so bad I have stretched myself beyond the reach of God"). There is also a good measure of ignorance, a lack of understanding of the true nature, the infinite presence of God.

I know, I was there until just a few years ago myself. I can still hears the echoes of the crunching under the Lord's feet of my brittle shell of pride, as He broke it and broke me, to Him. I know whence pride cometh, and that it goes before a fall.

Do not let your pride stand in the way of the joy He has for you. You know you are not good enough. He knows you are not good enough (and He knew it long before you did). Get over it.

Pride will come before a fall. Make it a fall into His arms for eternity, not a fall from grace forever.