Orders from Our Commander . . .

I’ve wanted to put some new punch into my Blog for a while and I think I have come up with a way to do just that. My time is limited but these will be relatively short articles. This first lesson is being written about something that one of my students is struggling with. So CS this lesson is especially for you.

Our commander says that we are to humble ourselves and not to dwell on prideful things. In the world that we live in, this is a foreign concept. This world would have you believe that if you do not take pride in yourself – no one else will. That you should brag about yourself so that others will take notice. Well this is far away from the orders that we have received from our commander. We need to understand the following concepts:

Humility is pleasing to God; He hates sinful pride. God hates pride and arrogance - to be self centered and self absorbed to the point of being annoying. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Here are a few scriptures to take a look at: Proverbs 8:13, James 4:6, Psalm 138:6, and Proverbs 3:34.

Sinful pride (selfish pride) leads to drama in your life. God says that pride breeds quarrels and that it can bring about destruction. He says that arrogance will be humbled and pride brought down. Take a look at these: Proverbs 13:10, Proverbs 16:18, Isaiah 2:11, Psalm 18:27, Mark 7:20-23.

There is a type of bragging that God finds pleasing. God likes it when we brag about knowing Him and His commands. We need to realize that we really don’t have anything to brag about, according to scripture, except the cross of Jesus. We need to brag about God and the things that He is doing in our lives. Check these out: Jeremiah 9:23-24, Psalm 44:8, and Galatians 6:14.

We need to understand that God is who gave us all that we have and has enabled us to do all that we do. We need to understand that apart from God we can do nothing, and that we should never have pride in things of this world. If we are going to be proud of something, let us be proud of the hope that we have in God and all that He has given us.
These are great: John 15:5 and 1st Timothy 6:17.

We must come to the understanding that pride must be replaced by humility. Vanity and selfishness lead to drama. Humility will always consider others and their feelings first. We need to be reminded that in the middle of SIN is I. Conceit, selfishness, pride (selfish pride), all remove Jesus from the throne of our lives and replace Him with you. Jesus has and never will fail us. He rewards us with grace if we humble ourselves. These are good: Philippians 2:3, Romans 12:3, 1st Peter 5:5, and Matthew 20:26-28, 1st John 2:15-17.

The following are great scriptural examples:
Joseph – Genesis 35
Nebuchadnezzar – Daniel 4
Jesus – John 13 and Philippians 2
Paul – 2nd Corinthians 12 and Philippians 3

Until next time - keep your eyes on Jesus and be humble.