Growing Together
“How precious is Your loving-kindness, O God! And the sons of men take refuge under the shadow of Your wing.
They shall be satisfied with the fatness of Your house; and You shall make them drink of the river of Your pleasures.
For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we shall see light.
O continue Your loving-kindness to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.”
Ps. 36:7-10
“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.”
Prov. 8:13
Self-righteousness is very hypocritical. While it makes you increasingly aware of other’s short-comings, it blinds you to the fact of your own sinful ways. We tend to become calloused to our own sin. We aren’t looking for areas in our life that are dishonouring to God because we aren’t even aware that it exists! Oh, we know that we sin everyday, but we lose the sinfulness of sin. It’s no wonder that God hates the sin of pride, it “renders men unwilling to hear his humbling, awakening, holy instructions,” as Matthew Henry puts it.
“There is the burden of pride. The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace? The heart’s fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable. Yet the sons of the earth are carrying this burden continually, challenging every spoken word against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before them.
“Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, ‘Oh, so you have been overlooked? They have placed someone else before you? They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men think.’”
“The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto. He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring. He rests perfectly content to allow God to place His own values.”
“In the meantime he will have attained a place of soul rest. As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness brings.” The Pursuit of God-A.W. Tozer
I know that was a really long excerpt, but it’s very challenging to my own heart. I need to remember that I am nothing without Christ. Christ needs to be seen, not me. There is also the need in the church to let others see the real us; the faults, heartbreaks and pain, struggles and victories. We shouldn’t pretend that we are ‘perfect’ Christians. Hello, we aren’t! Yes, be wise in who you allow to see the depths of your heart, but let others see the real you, flaws and all. Yes, it’s hard to admit when we’ve messed up, but God calls us to humble ourselves and confess our sin to one another. When we let this be our practice, we cultivate a deeper love for God and for each other.
We should grow in love for one another, bearing each others burdens and building each other up in the Lord. We should cultivate a heart of compassion, for the lost and for the struggling. How can we reach the lost with self-righteousness written all over our faces? We all struggle with our own sinful hearts and satan’s fiery darts. So can we not admit it? Oh, how we need God’s grace to cover and flow through us! May the world see Christ’s bride as a place where they can be honest about their sin, where they see a love for Christ and for one another. May this love compel them to want to know our Saviour.
God is calling me and you out from the pit of self-righteousness. Pride is a lie telling us that we don’t need God or each other and we can depend on ourselves. This is so far from the truth of God’s Word. We are very needy people, needing love, forgiveness, grace, mercy, ect. We need our Shepherd’s loving hand to guide and mold us.
We need to be broken before our loving Father, crying out for His forgiveness and grace. Pray for His eyes of love and His heart of compassion for the lost and for the household of faith. Link arms with fellow believers and dive deep into true fellowship for in this there is true joy!
If I take offense easily;
If I am content to continue in a cool unfriendliness, though friendship be possible,
Then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I feel injured when another lays to my charge things that I know not,
Forgetting that my Sinless Saviour trod this path to the end,
Then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I am inconsiderate about the comfort of others, or their feelings,
Or even of their little weaknesses;
If I am careless about their little hurts and miss opportunities to smooth their way;
If I make the sweet running of household wheels more difficult to accomplish,
Then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I myself dominate myself,
If my thoughts revolve around myself,
If I am so occupied with myself I rarely have ‘a heart at leisure from itself’
Then I know nothing of Calvary love.
A. Carmichael
“O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed by my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to me soul, ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.” -Tozer
B.Davies