6)
Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
7)
Casting all your care upon
him; for he careth for you.
8)
Be sober, be vigilant;
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour:
9)
Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the
same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
10)
But the God of all grace,
who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have
suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish,
strengthen, settle you.
11)
To him be glory and
dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
|
I |
t is difficult for the human mind to
perceive spiritual things, for whereas the spiritual world is selfless, the
mind and the world in which it operates are the epitome of selfishness.
The natural activity of the human mind
is to look out for self, while spiritual things are designed on behalf of the
Man seeks to operate independently of
God. Within us is an inbred desire to separate ourselves from a dependency on
spiritual direction. This "struggle," then, necessitates that one
write his own plan—thereby, meeting our need to
satisfy and gratify our flesh.
Thank God that His decisions are not
left to
If we must have "proof" of
our "miserable choices," all we have to do, for a very short period
of time, is to study what man does to himself. This
will prove that he has no business trying to run his own life. What an ironic
thing to say of one who takes pride in believing himself to be the most
intelligent species on the planet. In general, that which Man does believing it
beneficial is detrimental to him.
Whatever we are blessed to accomplish
in this life we must count as such—blessings. We can never lose sight of the
grace and providence of God as He moves through our lives performing miracle -
after - miracle. By doing this, our traditional "self-interest" will
be directed toward God. Then, He gets the glory.
The only way that "self" is
eradicated in one's life is that the individual must change his
"traditional" mentality. Scripture tells us to "humble
thyself," and it is always more pleasant for us to take the responsibility
for this, than forcing God to. Besides, trying to do anything on our own is a
good way to end up on the bottom.
One of the most frequent complaints of
the saint involves not having what he wants. As opposed to real need,
this is often an issue of humility. That is, how we want to look as
opposed to how we feel we look. Not only this,
but we often take pride in what we can show of ourselves as opposed to
what we are for the Lord.
In the overall picture of salvation,
the Lord is not so much concerned with what we want, as with what we need in
order that we might grow. We have no choice but to evolve into a people of God
preparing to bring a close to the history of Mankind.
Since, "to him (must go)
glory," others must see that God works in our behalf. This is the only way
they will be moved to magnify Him. Those who will be able to win others will
only be those with a stand for Him and anyone so blessed must understand and
accept that the devil is always "on the prowl" to find those standing
on what they believe and who they are apart from the knowledge God. He operates
in the same way as a lion in the wild, who stalks his prey until it is where he
wants it. When everything is arranged to his best advantage, he lets out a
roar, paralyzing his victim. In much the same way, we allow the devil to
paralyze us. When he gets us where he wants us, he presents to us that which is
not even real. If we react in fear, we are effectively "paralyzed" in
the work of the Lord. Note too that those most susceptible to
"attack" (whether from a wild animal or the devil" are
"isolationists." Never, at anytime are we led to believe hat we are
"in this" by ourselves. But, those who isolate themselves are subject
to the mind game played by the devil.
Many try to handle their difficulties
by staying home to "think things out." The problem with this,
however, is that one is never "home alone." For if God is not with
us, the enemy is. Our "protection" against him is our faith in the
Word of God. This is the only "weapon" we need. So obviously, the
more of the Word we know, the better off we are. This is why we cannot afford
to be cut-off from anything spiritual.
Believe it or not, some people actually
take personal glory in tribulation—but even this glory belongs to God, for it
is only because of His salvation that we are tried and tested. Sometimes, man
attempts to steal the glory of tribulation by "aiding" God in
delivering him. The admonition in this situation...is: "Don't pay God's
bills!" That which He sets in motion, He is perfectly capable of handling.
He has arranged things so that no matter what comes, we can send it to
God and thank Him for deliverance!
Let us "let you in on a
secret": the greater the problem, the more we need to glorify God. Others must
see that we are neither gripers nor complainers, but praisers
of God. Rather than making sure that everyone knows what we are going through,
the time us now to magnify God.
We can't give too much glory to God, in fact, we really can't give Him enough. We must work
as diligently to glorify the Lord as the devil works to minimize the move
of God and the greatness of what we have been given.