9/6/2021

Humble yourselves before the Living Word of God. Humble. It often means putting others needs ahead of your own, never taking any credit for it but instead allowing it to be given over to God, and often bowing yourself to God, knowing that you don't deserve His gift of everlasting life in Heaven. Paul is a great example of being a humbled Christian. (Reference: Steps of Faith by Joye Angel). Before he was Paul, the greatest Christian Apostle man the world has ever known, he was known as Saul, a man who lived to breathe threats against Christianity and persecuted them, and the Church, across the country. That all changed when God intervened on the Damascus road and blinded Saul, asking "Saul, Saul why are you persecuting Me?". How can you respond to that simple question? Saul did by asking Who it was that was speaking to him. "I am Christ whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads." (Acts 9: 3-5). Anyway, after being blinded, Saul was led to Damascus and stayed there for 3 days and nights, never once ate or drank anything. When the 3 days were up, God sent Ananias to give Saul his sight back and baptized him. When he emerged, Saul became a new person in Christ and God changed his name from Saul to Paul. The same Paul who wrote most of the New Testament in the Bible and professed himself to be the lowest out of all the apostles that were ever known. That is true humility. We must all humble ourselves like Paul did and be more like Christ otherwise, our pride and self-centeredness is gonna get in the way of our relationship with the Lord. This was one of the things my mother's book taught me when I read a chapter of it today. We cannot let our pride get in the way of spreading God's Word. Put that pride away in a box and inquire to God to lock it up tight so that the Devil doesn't try to get it to come out. "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." – 1 Peter 5:6 KJV.

Amen