Showing posts with label pride. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pride. Show all posts

Friday 12 May 2017

Ability (part 6) Thought about the ability of God’s Provision Bringing Glory

God’s Provision

Brings Glory


Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.
Psalm 50:15

    Did you know that you bring glory to God by calling upon Him when you are in distress?

God promised He would deliver you if you turned to Him. You deny the Lord honour that is rightfully His every time you find yourself in difficulty and you fail to call upon Him for help! There may be times when God allows you to reach a point of need so that you can call upon Him, and thus let Him demonstrate to a watching world the difference He makes in the lives of His children.

If God never allowed you to experience need, people around you might never have the opportunity to witness God’s provision in the life of a Christian. If you never faced a shortfall, you might be tempted to feel self-sufficient and without any need of God in your daily life.

    Pride will tempt you to think that you do not need to seek God’s assistance. Self-regard will seek to convince you that you can handle your dilemma through your own wisdom, resources, and hard work. Pride will also rob glory from God and seek to give it to you. Don’t allow your pride to take what rightfully belongs to the Lord. Call upon your Lord and wait exclusively upon Him to rescue you. Then give Him the glory that He deserves.

    Self-sufficiency can greatly hinder your ability to experience God and bring Him honour. The next time you are in distress, turn to Him!

From Experiencing God day by day

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Preceding articles:
Ability (part 4) Thought about the ability to have ability
Ability (part 5) Thought about the abilities to be under God's Spirit
Be not afraid of those trials which God may see fit to send upon thee
A Living Faith #4 Effort
Remember there's a light in the next day
If your difficulties are longstanding, try kneeling
Your struggles develop your strengths
Even in tough times remembering the blessings
Frank risks taking
The soul has no rainbow if the eyes have no tears
Preaching to an unbelieving world

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Additional reading

  1. Creation of the earth and man #23 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #7 Corporeal and spiritual change
  2. Dealing with worries in our lives
  3. Looking at three “I am” s
  4. Some one or something to fear #6 Faith in the Most High
  5. the Bible – God’s guide for life #5 What is God like
  6. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #15 Exposition before the Creator
  7. Is God behind all suffering here on earth
  8. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
  9. God’s never-ending stream of much-needed mercies
  10. In Defense of the truth
  11. May we have doubts
  12. Fear in your own heart or outside of it
  13. Watch out
  14. Welcoming writing that can help to heal, to grow and to learn about ourself
  15. Philippians 4:4–7 – Do Not Be Anxious
  16. Ruth having reason to grief
  17. How can we prepare for the Kingdom of God
  18. He who knows himself, is kind to others
  19. To Live Gratitude
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Monday 14 June 2010

Be humble like Christ





“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” (1Pe 5:6 NIV)



There is a crown of pride (#Isa 28:3), which no one should wear.  But lots of people love to be recognized and to be placed on a higher platform.
God's hand sym discipline (Exodus 3:19; 6:1; Job 30:21; Psalm 32:4) and deliverance (Deuteronomy 9:26; Ezekiel 20:34).  We do not have to compare ourselves with other people in the world.  We are better to choose to be humbled under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt us in due time.

We do not like to be humbled.  Though we should recognize that it can be wholesome.

Christ was humble -- 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.' He towered infinitely above everyone on earth.  How then could he be sincerely humble?  Because he realized that he was nothing, and God was everything.  He did not (like so many) compare himself with those around him, but with God.  He knew that all he ever did or was or understood was of God: the gift of God, the love of God.  He had no illusions of his own innate strength or goodness or wisdom.  He emptied himself -- his own natural, fleshly self -- and filled himself totally with God: or, rather, he submitted to God totally filling him, to perfectly direct every thought, word and deed.  He was the perfect vessel for the Divine use.  Let us try to follow him.

 Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Wordt nederig als Christus

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2016 linkupdate

Thursday 22 October 2009

What Jesus did: First things first

Matthew 22:34-35:

The Pharisees learned that Jesus told the Sadducees things they could not argue with. So the Pharisees met together. One Pharisee was an expert in the law {of Moses}. That Pharisee asked Jesus a question to test him. (ERV)  

Key Thought

We have a real sense of rivalry and pride playing into this situation. The Pharisees could gloat a moment at the Sadducees inability to trip up Jesus. "But we're better than they are. We study harder and follow God's Law more closely than the Sadducees. We'll trip him up for sure!"
But when truth is not the goal, when pride, comfort, and recognition become tantamount to life, then motives get jumbled and truth ends up getting forgotten. Those who seek the truth lose it when their goal is simply defeating someone else rather than searching for the truth.

Today's Prayer
Holy God, help me not become so blinded by someone I view as an opponent or antagonist that I forget my search for your truth. Please help me grow more determined to find and celebrate your truth. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

The Pharisees learned that Jesus told the Sadducees things they could not argue with. So the Pharisees met together. One Pharisee was an expert in the law {of Moses}. That Pharisee asked Jesus a question to test him. The Pharisee said, "Teacher, which command in the law is the most important?" Jesus answered, "'You must love the Lord your God. You must love him with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and most important command. And the second command is like the first: 'You must love other people the same as you love yourself.' All of the law and the writings of the prophets take their meaning from these two commands." So while the Pharisees were together, Jesus asked them a question. Jesus said, "What do you think about the Christ ? Whose son is he?" The Pharisees answered, "The Christ is the Son of David. " Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, "Then why did David call him 'Lord'? David was speaking by the power of the {Holy} Spirit. David said, 'The Lord (God) said to my Lord (Christ): Sit by me at my right side, and I will put your enemies under your control. ' David calls the Christ 'Lord.' So how can he be David's son?" None of the Pharisees could answer Jesus' question. And after that day no person was brave enough to ask Jesus any more questions {to try to trick him}.
Matthew 22:34-46 (ERV)

Saturday 18 July 2009

No time for immorality

"Christ had no time for immorality, and neither has any Bible-based church. Chastity, honesty and truthfulness are all musts for the genuine Christian.

At the same time, Christ hates self-righteousness, hard-heartedness and unkindness. He condemned the smug bunch of Pharisees who were looking down their noses at an adulterous woman - and then he rebuked the woman, 'Go, and do not sin again.' John 8:11.
Christ and fhe Adulterous Woman
Christ and fhe Adulterous Woman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)



The lesson of this story is clear. Christ hates both sorts of sin: the hidden sins of the heart, like the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and the more obvious sins, like the adultery of the woman.

So we must constantly fight against 'internal' sins, like pride, and covetousness, and unclean thoughts; but we must fight equally hard against the 'external' sins, like cheating the income tax man, gluttony, and lying our way out of a scrape.

But this is only the negative side of Christian behaviour - the 'thou shalt nots'. Equally important, maybe even more important, are the positive traits listed in Galatians 5:22-23. 'The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.'"

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Brother Alan Hayward
Great News for the World

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2013 update:

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