Exposing The Underbelly
1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
Now as simplistic as it may sound I sometimes grasp Spiritual concepts deeper through the use of word pictures. The moment I read this passage I envisioned us lowering ourselves before God much like a dog does to it’s Master’s hand. Images like this make me do a little research on what I’m picturing mentally. In doing so I found some interesting things to reflect on.
I learned that when dogs are born their Mother’s constantly turn them over to clean and care for them because they cannot take care of themselves. Much like us, this is not met without some resistance. However, because the Mother is bigger and stronger eventually the puppy learns to submit to her authority and decides to roll over. They begin to understand that she is essentially their Master and that she is looking out for them, regardless of what they may think or want at the time. At some point they get the connection that she is there to help them.
As dogs grow and mature most begin to apply these same principles when showing submission to their Human Masters. That’s why you’ll see a dog roll on its side or on it’s back when they see a human loved one approaching. Now they could very well turn and bite the hand that feeds them, but this would be out of fear. This kind of behavior would be out of a need to remain in control but instead the majority of dogs will relinquish all their power. Despite not knowing in advance what that person might or might not do for them, they will choose to submit themselves based on the knowledge that this is who pledges to care for them. They will expose the most vulnerable, the weakest part of their being, the under belly, all in an effort to show they have placed full trust in them.
Shouldn’t we do the same? ‘Humble yourself under God’s mighty hand”, I really needed to stop and take the time to consider what that requires. It’s easy for me to say I want to be humble to God but it can’t be something I show with words but rather by my actions. It requires pliability, it requires ‘letting Go and letting God’ as the phrase so cleverly describes. It means I am ready to be vulnerable to His will even though I may have my own. There are many definitions for the word “humble”. When I was considering my part in applying this scripture here is one that greatly affected me, “lowering in condition or importance; destroying the independence, power or will of.” Yikes! … Now that sounds a bit scary but this type of surrendering works out for my benefit. When I humble myself to God’s mighty hand I am trusting in His Authority, I am proving that I believe He’d never harm me, and I am appreciating how much he takes care of things for me. Exposing my “under belly” which is my Soul into God’s hands means that I will not give way to fear and that I am letting Him lead me. When I do this, as any loving Master would, He takes hold of me.
Praise Him.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
How Precious Is Unity
How Precious Is Unity
Philippians 4:1-10 reads:
1Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! 2I I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. 3Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, those names are in the book of life.4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Unity it so important in all the things we do in Christ, especially because we operate as a team when we profess to be believers. Sometimes our personal opinions or perceptions can cloud our judgment when it comes to guarding the Unity of the body and this is just what the Devil prefers, our separation from one another. Therefore we have to be diligent, the phrase “Agree to disagree” does not apply when it comes to the word of God and it doesn’t promote unity when it comes to our opinions either. If anything it just encourages us to fixate on the idea that, “I’m right and He’s wrong …so let’s all leave it alone,” this in turn creates more division. A better way to look at things is, “Let’s not let our differences drive us apart or affect all that we are working towards. Let’s work towards remaining in agreement so we can concentrate on what God wants.”
People are going to come from all walks of life when we make Jesus our Savior so it’s to be expected that we might not all share the same experiences or personal preferences. However, when it comes to Unity, it’s our common ground we should be protecting, not that which pours out from our own hearts. We need to work extra hard to avoid pleasing our flesh and to remember our work in the Lord is too important to emphasis our own ideals.
In Philippians 4 we see that Paul cautioned against this mindset. He felt so strongly about this that he publicly encouraged Euodia and Syntche to agree. It appears these Women were having some sort of disagreement. Since they were such important workers in the Lord's kingdom a division could have easily brought about public discord and begin to affect others. This would have resulted in an overshadowing of the fact that Paul himself said they had contented by his side for the Gospel. Whatever the case Paul pleaded with them to maintain unity, he encouraged the ladies and others in the region to join in this effort. We must always keep in mind family we are better than petty arguments. This is just what the Devil would like for us, for us to lose sight of the goal. That is why we must all live and work together carefully.
The Devil would rather us be so distracted with the minor things in life and or not remain in harmony when it comes to the Word so much, that we throw in the towel on God’s work and in on God’s family. That is why we are reminded in this same passage of how we should be interacting. We should be gentle with one another, we should be praying, we should be coming to God with things and we should be thinking positive with Christ as the center. That’s what’s going to keep us on track and that is what is going to keep us unified. Let’s block the Devil’s efforts by remaining unified so that we might jointly bring God the glory.
Go team Christ!
Philippians 4:1-10 reads:
1Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! 2I I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. 3Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, those names are in the book of life.4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Unity it so important in all the things we do in Christ, especially because we operate as a team when we profess to be believers. Sometimes our personal opinions or perceptions can cloud our judgment when it comes to guarding the Unity of the body and this is just what the Devil prefers, our separation from one another. Therefore we have to be diligent, the phrase “Agree to disagree” does not apply when it comes to the word of God and it doesn’t promote unity when it comes to our opinions either. If anything it just encourages us to fixate on the idea that, “I’m right and He’s wrong …so let’s all leave it alone,” this in turn creates more division. A better way to look at things is, “Let’s not let our differences drive us apart or affect all that we are working towards. Let’s work towards remaining in agreement so we can concentrate on what God wants.”
People are going to come from all walks of life when we make Jesus our Savior so it’s to be expected that we might not all share the same experiences or personal preferences. However, when it comes to Unity, it’s our common ground we should be protecting, not that which pours out from our own hearts. We need to work extra hard to avoid pleasing our flesh and to remember our work in the Lord is too important to emphasis our own ideals.
In Philippians 4 we see that Paul cautioned against this mindset. He felt so strongly about this that he publicly encouraged Euodia and Syntche to agree. It appears these Women were having some sort of disagreement. Since they were such important workers in the Lord's kingdom a division could have easily brought about public discord and begin to affect others. This would have resulted in an overshadowing of the fact that Paul himself said they had contented by his side for the Gospel. Whatever the case Paul pleaded with them to maintain unity, he encouraged the ladies and others in the region to join in this effort. We must always keep in mind family we are better than petty arguments. This is just what the Devil would like for us, for us to lose sight of the goal. That is why we must all live and work together carefully.
The Devil would rather us be so distracted with the minor things in life and or not remain in harmony when it comes to the Word so much, that we throw in the towel on God’s work and in on God’s family. That is why we are reminded in this same passage of how we should be interacting. We should be gentle with one another, we should be praying, we should be coming to God with things and we should be thinking positive with Christ as the center. That’s what’s going to keep us on track and that is what is going to keep us unified. Let’s block the Devil’s efforts by remaining unified so that we might jointly bring God the glory.
Go team Christ!
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