Overcoming Fear

What are you fearful of?  Is it that bill that you’re waiting for to come in from the mail? Maybe it is the future of your kids and their salvation or that of another family member.  What if you are fearful of the unknowns in life, such as tomorrow or next week or 10 years from now?  Are you fearful of your health, your relationships, and standing with your spouse? Are you worried about the rapture or fear that you really aren’t saved?  I could go on and on but I think you get the message: Fear can get a hold of us and hold us back and rip us apart.

Not all fear is bad though. I mean, if you are in the woods and see a bear coming towards you, I would hope most people would be scared. That kind of fear is a “fight or flight” fear which is good because it can save your life.  What I’m framing here is fear as it relates to everyday life and our relationship with Christ.

All too often we tend to get wrapped up and wound up over unnecessary fears that, in the big scheme of life, are really not too much to be fearful of.  Have you stayed up all night, lying in bed worried about tomorrow, some financial challenges, or as most parents, that first night your child has the car and is not home yet? 

When we get fearful of things, our minds seem to automatically go to the extremes of what bad things can happen.  The mind automatically switches from rational thoughts to catastrophic thoughts of what may happen.  We get worked up, stressed out, and our anxiety levels shoot through the roof, only to be finally tempered once that thing we were fearful of results in really nothing to have been scared of in the first place. 

We get a sense of relief from the fear that the medical bill’s decimal place wasn’t in the thousands, but the hundreds. We feel relief when our children come home safe and sound.  We feel the weight of the fear lift off our shoulders when we realize our fear was not necessary. Then you know what? The cycle continues and goes round and round each day, each week, until we turn into worry warts. This cycle of fear will spill over to our relationship with Christ and can disconnect us from Him.

I remember after a few months of being saved, I had this great fear that I was not saved. It was irrational, but I couldn’t get over it. I stressed a lot, I became anxious, and I feared the rapture would come the next day and I would be left behind. This kind of slippery slope of these thoughts got worse and worse and then it got in the way of my walk with Jesus to a point where I was pleading everyday for salvation.  I eventually came to my senses after the Holy Spirit assured my heart that yes, I was saved and am a child of God. 

That was a relief to have my heart and the Holy Spirit assure me that I was saved!  Yet I still get scared of everyday life occurrences and challenges. That’s why I’m writing about this. I wanted to know what the Bible said about fear and it says a lot. I figured that if I’m fearful of things, then there must be others like me and we need the assurance of the importance of not being fearful or of being a worry wart.

“So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me,” (Hebrews 13:6).

This is talking the challenges we face daily through those of the world and the world.  Those of the world and not of God will try to snare and trap us into fear.  Satan uses this tactic to get into our minds to cause us to get scared with the hope that our fear will translate to separation from Christ.

Those of us that are saved are not of this world, but you know what, we are stuck in this world until it is time to go home with Christ.  We survive each day while being surrounded by wicked men, women, temptations of sin, and the battle of our minds and hearts against Satan.  Satan and the world will throw everything at you to give you fear in your heart. 

Having fear of this world will put you down and make you no better than the world around you. We are children of God, are separated from the world and Satan in our thoughts and actions. We are set apart from the world and should not face the fear of men of this world or the world itself.

Easier said than done, right? I mean, look, we are human beings, imperfect humans that have challenges all the time that are related to this world. Are they justifiable fears? Is it okay to be scared or worried about if your bank account will be in the negative before the next paycheck or how will you pay for your kid’s college? No, you shouldn’t have these fears, but we still do and we need to remember that rationally, we should not be fearful of worldly things.

What about our loved ones, especially those that aren’t saved? We love and care for them so much that it hurts and scares us to think that they may not be saved and we won’t see them in heaven.  We fear for their salvation, their wellbeing, and their safety.  We fear for our health, especially when the doctor says he needs to run some tests and doesn’t tell you why. God does not want us to be scared of these and other things. He says in Joshua 1:19:

“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

You see that? God is with us and we don’t need to be afraid.  We can trust that He will be with us.

Even this recognizable verse should remind of us to not be fearful of anything:

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me,” (Psalms 23:4)

Christ is our comforter in times when we do get scared of the evils of this world.  Fear is a powerful force that Satan can use against us to cause us to drift from our relationship with Christ. Yet, Christ is our rock that we can trust in to sustain us through those times when we are fearful of events or spiritual battles.

“Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved,” (Psalms 55:22)

When we are burdened with fear, when fear has enveloped around us like thick fog, we can trust that not only is God with us, but He will sustain us until that fog clears and we can see again. It’s like trying to see the entire forest when you are in the forest; you can’t see the big picture of things.  We tend to look at life about as far as our hand can reach out and then begin to worry about things because we can’t see the forest from the trees. 

God will not let us be moved.  If we are saved and believe in Christ and His sacrifice for us, we can trust, without fear, that we won’t be moved. We won’t be swayed by the world or the fears and worries that they want us to feel to separate us from Christ.

John 16:33 says: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Christ didn’t come here in the flesh for us to have fear, but he came here so we can have peace.

Peace is the opposite of fear and peace is something we should all strive for.  Fear causes a lot of negative thought processes but peace brings that “ahhhh” relief to our hearts from Christ that everything will be okay.  Christ will take care of us and we would be wise to remember this.  When we face fear, we should automatically turn to Christ and ask for peace and guidance. We should not let our minds drift and fantasize about all the bad things that can happen.  

Christ, in the flesh overcame the world. If He did this, as our example, then we too should strive to overcome the world as well. Again, the world is a horrid place.  Other than death or rapture, we cannot escape this world and so we must learn to live in it, yet not be of it.  Like the verse says, he didn’t come to earth to let us fear, but he came so we could have peace.  What a wonderful thing He did for us!

So some of you may say how do we overcome fear and have peace?  We have the Holy Spirit to guide us and give us comfort to face and negate the effects of fear:

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you,” (John 14: 16-17)

Those in the world do not have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is for those of us that ARE saved.  Notice in the verse that it says “I will pray the Father.”  Christ is asking God Himself to give us the Holy Spirit to be in and with us.  I’ve forgotten what it is like not to have the Holy Spirit in my heart.  I can only imagine those without the Holy Spirit needlessly wandering around life without God inspired direction.  They don’t have a God given gift to guide them in everyday life as we that are saved do. 

To those of the world, it is a mystery to them that the Holy Spirit is in us.  They don’t understand the importance of having the Holy Spirit to receive the guidance to lead us and keep us on the path of righteousness and peace.  A lot of people don’t care about this, and that is their choice, for they are content with the things of the world because they are of the world. Yet we know that the Comforter is in us to keep us safe, to give us guidance, and to lead us to the things Christ wants from us and what He wants us to do in this life.

Have you ever observed an unsaved person live life? They live it out of fear.  Even those that seem happy enough are fearful of life. They fear the unknown of death. They fear bad things will happen to them all the time and they live in fear because of this: they worry about everything.

They try to relieve this fear by living of the world and not of Christ.  They make a lot of money because they fear they will be poor. They fear death and live haphazardly through life with no direction, no Christ in their lives to guide them. They are in the midst of darkness and see no light except the darkness of the world that is ruled by Satan and the fear he has trapped them with.

We need not fear though because we have one thing to our advantage: Christ. With Christ on our side, what do we need to be fearful of? What thing or event can cause us to be fearful? Absolutely nothing. Does this mean we won’t face fear at times, no, but as we grow with Christ, we fear things less and less as our relationship with Christ grows and grows.

People, if you are saved and are fearful of the things in life, now is the time to give them to Christ and live a peaceful minded life. Christ will take those burdens of fear and will give you peace. This doesn’t mean life will be easy, nor will you be free of worry all the time, but strive to be at peace with your life and strive to grow in Christ.

As you tend your relationship with Christ, it will not only bloom, but will thrive like an overflowing garden.  Christ came to us and is here for us to have peace; Peace in this horrible world we live in and peace that we are saved to salvation with Him forever.  We are children of God and we live with hopeful expectation of life forever with Christ. 

Don’t let fear get in the way of your walk with Christ. Gain strength in Christ to overcome fear and defeat the world and Satan as they try to steer you away from Him. When you overcome fear and gain peace in its place, you grow stronger and are better able to face the tribulations of life that would cause great fear to the unsaved. Trust in Christ.

I am yours

“We love him, because he first loved us,” (1 John 4:19).

What a simple but beautiful verse.  I love its simplicity and it is so deep on so many levels.  His deep love for us is a wonderful thing. I ponder the bible and the stories of Him, the teachings He gave us, and the love He gave us through his sacrifice.  How can we not love Him for all He did and all He gave for us?  This verse makes my heart swell up and makes me proclaim: “Yes, I am yours!”

The love for Christ is so much deeper than the love for anyone else. He is our Savior, our first love.  No person, wife, child, friend, or family member should be before our love for Christ. The love for Christ is on a whole different level than the love for our friends and family.  Spiritually, He is our first love and for me at least, my only true love and I can’t wait until I meet Him in heaven. 

Love for Christ is an inward and everlasting testament to our hearts and souls that we are His. He is the Almighty and Great I Am that makes us His forever and ever.  I’m trying to put into words the feelings of love I have for Christ, but I can’t find words. Words are not enough to express the complete and overwhelming love for Christ that I have in my heart.

I feel so much joy and happiness knowing that I am His and He is with me. The thought of not me being His is a scary thought and knowing that I missed out on Him for over 30 years is time lost that I can never recover pains me greatly. I’m doing my best to make up for time lost. 

“Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him,” (John 14:23).

When you love someone, like your spouse, you will want to take care of the relationship and grow it and let it bloom ever day.  You want to support your spouse and will care for them day in and day out. You don’t one day love you spouse and then the next day not. It is a constant and evolving love together.  This is the same with Christ.  When we love Him we are in a mutual relationship with Him. Our relationship, together, will grow and grow until it finally blooms into that deep love of Christ he wants from us and we with Him.

If we love Him, we will want to keep His words.  We will want to please Him and it turns into a loving cycle of love of us loving Him and Him loving us. His love for us is greater than we could ever imagine.  What Christ wants from us is love towards Him, an everlasting love like He has towards us.  He is waiting for you to reach out to Him and grab hold of Him like a grandmother hold’s her grandchild: with warmth, caring, and tender unending love. 

Also notice what this verse says? It is talking about being home in heaven. Can you just imagine the love we will feel in heaven? I imagine it is so much more than we can comprehend.  We will be surrounded everywhere and everyway with love. It’s hard to comprehend this kind of love for the world we live in is so horrible, but we will get to know that love. 

 “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,” (Revelation 22:17).

When you are Christ’s and you hear him beckon you and you thirst for His love more and more, you are freely allowed to get as much of Christ as you can get.  Our life should be all for Him for we are His. This comes at a small price: that we surrender ourselves to Him. We must lift Him up in our daily lives, everyday, every moment we live. We must always be thirsty for Him and His love for us. We must lift our hearts to Him and give all of ourselves to Him.  His love is there for us to partake in, we just need to give ourselves to Him.

Open your heart to Him and He won’t fail you. Open your heart to Him and you won’t fail Him. You will be His and He will be yours.  Believe this my friends. Christ won’t ever fail you nor abandon you. Even in the moments of silence, when you may think you are alone, you are not. What you don’t see is Christ working in the background of your life and heart, working and shaping you into the child He needs and wants you to be.  He is always there is never takes a break in taking care of you. 

With trust in Christ, His love will always find a way for us to overcome what we are going through. We are not alone. We are cared for more than we can imagine. And if we are cared for this much, how can we not trust the God of the universe to take care of us, even in trying times, He is there for us. He is never on break, never sleeps, but is always working in your heart to bring us closer to Him.

“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked,” (1 John 2:6)

Did you ever consider Christ as your mentor? He is.  He is the image we should strive for in our lives. When we look into the mirror, we should see Him in us.  We are His children and are saved and set free from this sinful world. Because of this, we need to emulate what He did. What did He do? He loved.  He loved so much for all people. We too need to have that love in our hearts as Christ did as well.

We are free to do what we will, but if we have Christ in our hearts, then we should walk as he walked and love as he loved. As followers of Christ we are charged with this. We are charged to love our neighbors as Christ told us to do. 

I don’t recall in the bible anytime Christ turned someone away or turned His back on them. He did this because He loved. If we are His, we should do this too.  Let Christ lead you to do as He did.  Christ doesn’t want us to be closet Christians but wants us to be proud and loud about our faith in Him. He is the light of the world and we need to emulate this with all we come into contact with.

We do this by love and a loving attitude. You can’t be in a sour attitude and love at the same time.  The two can’t fit into the same space. You can either have love in the space or no love in the space. We sometimes take love out of the space and replace it with anger, pride, hate, disdain, etc. Instead push those thoughts and feelings out of that space in your heart and let your love shine. Let your light be blinding to others, regardless of what the situation is. 

“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God,” (Ephesians 3:19).

We can’t comprehend the love of Christ for us but we can be filled with the fullness of His love.  Remember God is love and it is never ending.  He created us and gave us the opportunity to choose between Him and the world: of accepting Christ as our savior or to choose Satan.  When we are full of God, Satan can’t touch us.  If we let Satan touch us, it was because we let our guard down and let him in.  God will never tempt you.  You tempt yourselves when you lose focus on your true love: Christ.

I want so bad to know the full love that Christ has for me. This verse says it is beyond my comprehension. So when I imagine it, it is many, many times more than I could even fathom.  I just can’t wait to feel that love and know it in my heart. What an awesome thing this will be when it finally happens.

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him,” (1 John 4:16).

To lukewarm Christians and the unsaved, you truly are missing out on this great thing: having God in you.  Once you get saved, you are in God’s love. But you just can’t get saved and then stay in first gear, you have to speed up and keep moving forward.  Don’t sit on the fence of salvation. Salvation is freely given, you just have to ask for it. 

For the lukewarm Christians out there, do something for God, for love. What has God put on your heart to do for Him to further His kingdom? I’m pretty sure that it isn’t just going to church on Sunday’s or just Christmas and Easter. You have to work for Jesus, not to earn your way into heaven for dead works will get you now where with Him.

God has a plan for each and every one of us. Mine is writing and sharing.  Yours is what God had put on your heart. For me, it was put on my heart to write for Christ. He wants me to encourage and help through words.  I never thought that I would be doing this all the time now.  The first time I wrote, it was put on my heart and I ignored it for a long time thinking I wasn’t good enough to write for Him.  Then one night, I couldn’t go to sleep but had this urge to write. I tossed and turned in bed then I had a strong feeling to get up to the computer. I did and words just flowed out of my fingers.  I haven’t looked back since, but instead look forward to the next thing God inspires me to write. 

What is tugging at your heart to do for God? What have you been doing to help His kingdom?  I’ll tell you again, it’s not going to church only.  Again, God has a plan for you. You probably know what it is too, but have either resisted or ignored it like I did for sometime. Let go and follow your heart. Follow your heart for what God wants you to do for Him. Get on fire for Him in the talents and gifts He has given you.

When you do the works God wants you to do, you will truly understand what working for Him is. It is joy. It is fun. It is worthwhile.  Don’t do what you think you should do but do what God wants you to do. Step out in faith and follow your heart of which the Holy Spirit will lead you to do for God.

Just remember that whatever it is God wants you to do, do it with love and He will be with you as you learn and endeavor through your path He has drawn for you in your life. Start today, not tomorrow.  Don’t say I’ll start on Monday, but start now. 

For the unsaved, God has a plan for you too. To get to open that door, you must choose Christ as your Lord and Savior.  You must believe in Him in your heart of hearts. You choose Christ, you just got a golden ticket into heaven instead of hell.  The choice is yours to make and it is an eternal choice of where your soul will go.  The easy choice my friends is Christ. Get yourself saved, and proclaim to him “I am yours!” 

May peace and the love of Christ be with you all.

John_lysaught@yahoo.com

Be with us

Walk with us Jesus for we need You more than ever. Now the time is unknown of Your return, but the season is here.  We need You to help us stay strong. We need You to lean on, to help us stay strong in this season of dire times.  What You mean to us is salvation and You help us to keep this on the forefront of our hearts as we tread and trudge through each day of this vile world.  You are our keeper, our grace, and we are Your sheep that need to be watched and cared for.

 

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward You, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give You an expected end.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

 

We need peace in our hearts Lord. Peace and assurance of being taken of like a newborn baby.  We need You to feed us the milk of Your wisdom and the meat of Your knowledge. We need assurance of safety in these times of turmoil.  The world is against us but You are for us: let us not forget this.  As we face adversity, shine Your light on us, show us comfort and love, and give us peace of mind and heart. 

 

Every day is a day closer to Your coming Christ.  We are struggling to not be shut down by the world. We are surrounded by evil and the fight is hard. Sin envelopes around us like a pack of wolves, ready to pounce and feed on our hearts.  Be with us with our battles. Be our armor. Be our sword. Be our commander.  Help us to defeat temptation and give us an escape when it is seemingly unendurable for us to survive. 

 

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)

 

We need Your love oh God. We need it to survive and to prosper in Christ. We need strength and endurance to finish the race put before us in our lives. We need Your love to embolden us to resist Satan. We need Your love to share with others Your glory and Your ways.  We need Your love for we love You and our hearts need that comfort only You can give to Your chosen children.

 

We Christians dwell in Your love and cherish You more than anything in this world. You are above all things and are the creator of all, including us.  You know each of us. You know our thoughts, or desires, and mostly You know our hearts. May our hearts show You the love we have for You, All Mighty God. Our hearts are with You and help us to remain faithful and strong in You as the end nears.

 

You say that if we dwell in Your love, then You will dwell in us.  Please Lord, I pray that You stay in us. Your promises are true and Your ways are always right. This is a promise You have given us that You will dwell in us if we love You.  We believe in Your promises, all of them, and know that whatever adversity we face from the world, You will be with us in our trials and tribulations. You will help us overcome and will help us stay on the path of righteousness.

 

“That Christ may dwell in Your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)

 

You are the center of our lives Jesus. Nothing can separate us from You except ourselves.  Stay in our hearts Jesus.  Keep us strong.  Knowing that our knowledge of Your love is not comprehendible to us, gives us assurance of Your caring and want of our wellbeing and our salvation with You in Heaven. 

 

We have a stumbling block in us though Jesus that we need Your help with everyday of our lives: it is sin, from our sinful nature.  The world is after us, hell-bent on taking us away from You. Unfortunately, this happens. The temptations are too overwhelming for some and they don’t take the escape You provide. The fall, they fail, and they get so far from You that the world gets them to believe that they don’t need You or they are not good enough for You.

 

We face temptation every day. It is thrown in our faces endlessly. Temptation and sin are always around the corner and knocking on the door of our minds.  We fail for we are imperfect creatures, but give us the strength to learn from our mistakes and give us grace as we ask for it when we do sin. 

 

Remind us who we are on a daily basis. Remind us who we are to You and give our hearts comfort and strength to drive on. Help us to stay on the straight and narrow path leading to heaven.  Help us to not fail You, but help us to grow in our love and relationship with You as our days go on and Your reappearance draws near.  Keep us strong in You so we can overcome and resist Satan. Dwell in us Jesus. Keep us striving to keep You in our hearts every moment of the day.

 

“For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” (Isaiah 54:10)

 

Continue to have mercy on those of us that love You Lord.  You are our Rock and our Steadfast Love.  You promise that Your kindness will not depart from us and You have given us a covenant of peace.  Let us be faithful in these promises. Let us place them in our heart and lock them in our minds and souls.  You are the great I Am and let us never forget this. Let us never forget Your ever and unending love for us.  Your promises You don’t break and Your love is too great for us to ever imagine.

 

Give us peace in this world full of those things contrary to You and the turmoil that is happening around us every minute of each day.  Let us be thankful for Your promises of peace and kindness towards us.  Keep us safe in Your hands. Be our Rock when the oceans rage. Be our shelter when as the storm around us intensifies.  We trust in You and Your promises Lord. You are our peace and strength.

 

“Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” (Romans 12:9)

 

Lord, let our love for You be with genuine love, without dissimulation.  Teach us to avoid evil and to hold on to what is good in Your eyes. Some people who say they are Christians don’t have a genuine love for You. They just go through the motions. They go to church and that is it; they think it is good enough for You. 

Give those people a sense of needing more Lord. They are lost and help those of us who genuinely love You to help them find that true love for You.  Give us the strength and power to move these people. Give them the hope of a better future-a future of eternity with You.  Not everyone who thinks they are Christians are in the Book of Life, but let us add pages for You.

In the world we live in, we are surrounded by on all sides by evil. The world is pure evil and fights against us daily. We are hit on all sides by the world and Satan to break us from loving and wanting to be with You. Give us the insight to recognize evil for what it is, no matter how sneaky Satan and the world are with their temptations to us.  Help us to overcome and be our escape. If and when we do fail and give into temptation, be with us as we ask for Your forgiveness and pour out Your grace upon us.

“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” (Psalm 91: 14-16)

Lord, let us hold fast to our love for You. You are there for us and we need You more than any other time in history for time is shorter as each day passes. The world is in a mess and Your prophesies are being fulfilled in this season of eternity.  You are our hope and through Christ have covered our sins and have promised eternity with You in heaven if we believe that Christ died for our sins and offered grace to us for our sins.  We thank You for this and want nothing more than to be with You in heaven.

When we pray Lord, please heed our prayers and answer us in a way that we know it is You and You alone.  You are the light of the world and with You there is no darkness in us.  Keep us out of the shadows of the world. Keep Satan at bay in our lives and give us the power, through You, to resist Satan. 

You are our life and our hope. Keep us close to You and shepherd us to wisdom and knowledge of Your greatness and power.  Give us the strength to endure to the end and give us the hope and faith in Christ our Savior.

John_lysaught@yahoo.com

Being Humble

“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”

(Matthew 23:12)

 

What does being humble mean? We use it all the time when we talk of Christ and our faith, but do we really know what it means. The dictionary says it is meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful. Now that we know this, we can have a better frame of context as we talk about being humble.

 

We need to be humble before Christ.  If we let pride or arrogance in ourselves to take over, especially in our spiritual life, God always finds a way to give us a piece of humble pie. Right?  Works that way for me.  I used to be very proud, prideful, and arrogant before I knew Christ. Even when I was saved these attributes held on to me for quite some time. 

 

Though since, Christ has taught me to be humble before Him and others.  My biggest challenge at that time was being humble before others. I lacked wisdom but not knowledge and so I would think I was better than others in education, life experience, and general everyday things. What Christ taught me was to be humble. 

 

The times I was arrogant and such, Christ would turn it around on me and I would be humbled.  After I became humble, after all those lessons, I live a more peaceful life. What God has taught me was to be humble towards others.  By being humble to others, I found that I get along with just about anyone and can learn something new from each person I meet, whether it be knowledge of something or wisdom. 

 

Once I learned to be humble with others, I learned to be humble towards Christ.  You would think it would be the other way around, but for me, Christ showed me to be humble towards others before I learned to be humble towards Him. 

 

What I learned was that when I exalted myself, I was not humble but arrogant in my ways. Yet when I humbled myself to others and Christ, I was blessed and could better express my love for Christ towards others through a meekness that showed I was willing to learn and set myself aside for others.

 

The sad part is that not all Christians do this and the secular world looks at us who practice this as weakness.  We’ve all met Christians who don’t practice meekness.  They are arrogant, prideful, and lack the humbleness required by Christ.  The best place to observe this is at church of course.  All you have to do is listen to people talk. Those that talk about themselves and all the great things they do for the church or the good they do for the community is not humble, but prideful.  They pride themselves on actions they do and like to brag about it so others can see how great of Christians they are.

 

Then you have the other Christians that are humble. They don’t boast about their works for Christ, but are humble about it when it is brought up, like it is no big deal.  These are truly humble people for they don’t talk about what they did for Christ but what Christ is using them for and how thankful they are for the opportunity Christ has given them to do His work. I admire these people, but they are few and far between.

 

To most secular world we are weak people. Those of us that practice humbleness are seen as weak and meek people. If you are seen that way, be happy about it for that is what we are suppose to be.  Be humble towards others and be humble towards Christ.  When we are humble towards others it shows our love and caring for people. When we are humble before Christ, we are open to His guidance and His great love for us on our path towards salvation. When humble to Christ, we have a better relationship with Him for He is greater than all and deserves humbleness before Him. We have a better prayer life, better understanding of His word, and are more in tune to what He wants from us. 

 

When not humble to Christ, we tend to rely on ourselves and give credit to ourselves for our greatness, leaving Christ in the background when He should be in the foreground of praise.  Without humbleness, our relationship with Christ is not as full or fulfilling as it can be with Him.  It’s like we are taking credit for something He did in or for us and not recognizing His greatness.

 

When I write or study the bible, I pray for humbleness in these activities.  If I try to write with arrogance, without His inspiration, they are horrible writings and end up in the recycling bin on my computer. If I try to study the bible without being meek in knowledge and wisdom, I just don’t get the full picture or message. Yet when I am humble, I find I learn more from the bible and I write better messages than relying on myself to do so. 

 

“With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love…” (Ephesians 4:2)

 

“To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.” (Titus 3:2)

 

When I meet people, I remind myself to be humble towards them. I remind myself that I’m not better than them.  When I do this, I’m amazed at what I can glean from people. When I’ve met homeless people and act humble towards them, I learn a lot about them and learn lessons about life from them that I take away. Not only does it bless me but it blesses them because they feel they are equal to me, which they are in the eyes of Christ. 

 

I find also that when I meet people and act humble towards them, they respond in a different way than the other guy or gal who was rude and arrogant.  It’s like being humble spreads love and peace around you. By doing so, you are emulating Christ and your light of Him shines to others. Be humble to others and not only will you bless them with the light of Christ, but you will be blessed knowing that you showed love to another and may just get the opportunity to share Christ to someone.

 

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Pete 5:8

 

You know who doesn’t want you to be humble? You guessed it-Satan.  Oh how he doesn’t want you to be humble towards anyone and especially Christ. He wants to kill, steal, and destroy. He doesn’t want you to have a relationship with Christ or show love to others. He wants you to be proud. He wants pride to rule your life. He likes it when you are arrogant and show no meekness.  Why? Because this lack of humbleness will separate you from God. How can you be humble only on Sunday’s but be everything contrary the other six days of the week. 

 

Remember, Satan wants your soul with him in hell and he’ll do anything to get you to give your soul to him. There are many ways he does this and one is to take away your humbleness.  By taking away your humbleness towards Christ, he makes a barrier between you and your maker.  He’s sneaky at this and will chip away at you so you have to be strong enough to recognize his ways and resist.

 

Pride is a strong thing to have and to avoid. Pride is easy to get and if not kept in check, will grow and grow until it has overpowered you. What will Satan do to make you prideful? He will use your faith against you. What you do for Christ, Satan will try his best to get you to think it was all you and not Christ.  It may be little at first, but he will make it grow and grow until you are the one at church boasting about all the good YOU do and talk only about yourself and your good deeds.  This is a no-no. 

 

Arrogance is another tactic used by Satan to separate you from your Savior.  You’ve seen them, those people who are chosen to hold special status in Church that regular members aren’t part of. They can be Sunday school teachers, council members, etc. I’ve seen these people and there is a sense of arrogance about them that makes them seem they are better than others because of a status they hold at church.  When I was the council president, I was humbled by the opportunity and felt heavy responsibility of what I was responsible for. I didn’t boast and really, no one knew I was part of the council. I was humble and that is the way it is suppose to be.

 

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

 

Be humble my fellow servants of Christ. We found grace through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for us and because of this, He deserves, no it is commanded, that we be humble towards Him.  Regardless of where you walk with Christ is- a beginner or an old hand, remember to be humble to Him. Humbleness takes practice and mindfull effort on our part to always practice humbleness towards our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

He didn’t die on a cross for us to not be humble to Him and His teachings or ways, but to be humble in actions and spirit to Him and others.  If you are having a hard time being humble, or don’t know how to be humble, pick up that bible of yours and read it.  Christ was humble towards man and there are a plethora of examples in the Gospels of His humbleness and His examples of being humble. 

 

Recognize that Christ is our Lord. See that He is above us. Know that He loves you. Most of all though, be humble in spirit to Him when studying and praying to Him.

 

With all blessings.

 

John_lysaught@yahoo.com