Category: humility

I Must Do What He Has Taught Me

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“If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash each other’s feet.”

John 13:14, NCV

Jesus sets out a lot of things and lays them out on the table.  We gather around to get a closer look.  A significant issue is this deal about  becoming a servant.  It stipulates a certain fact that drives us all ‘very crazy’.  Jesus has stated so much, but now we’re being pushed to the edge.  Afterall, there is only so much we can put up with.

But Jesus fully intends to open up this subject, for us to see.  The idea is beyond bizarre, He is saying things which are very strange.  He dictates that we are to start acting like the lowest slaves in our homes.  These slaves have the gross task of cleaning everyone’s feet.  This is the sole work of the ‘bottom scum’.  This is now the ready place for His followers.

There are many ways we can wash feet in the 21st Century.  But the two stages involve #1, stooping down low, and #2, providing beneficial service to our brother on-the-chair.  These are the two essential thrusts to our new life of servanthood. It is only Biblical servanthood if we connect with both stages.

Jesus sees all of this, this washing business, as something He has done first-hand.  He certainly hasn’t ‘commanded’ us without doing it Himself first.  He leads us, and just doesn’t direct us.  Many leaders have gotten confused on this issue.  But our Lord ‘excels’.  He models it, and we begin to understand its glory.

In essence, He states, “Look at Me, watch how I do this.  And then you must copy Me’.  We believers are always to be looking, spiritually observant.  We see our example cleaning dirty feet, and we find ourselves in that same role.  Understanding the disgusting concept of feet-washing was very close to the level of wiping someone elses butt.  Extremely disagreeably, with zero upside to it.  It would’ve been crude, gross and demeaning.

Jesus is disciplining us, and we look unswerving to Him.  We will follow and not look back.  We are an army made up exclusively of servants.  We will take the lowest spot, and we will love everyone we come in contact with.

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He Certainly Does Answer, [Prayer]

 “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
         I will be with him in trouble;
         I will deliver him and honor him.”

Psalm 91:15

“So I tell you to ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you.” 

 Luke 1:9

Our Father God very much wants to put us into a ‘win-win’ situation.  This is remarkable considering our our pathetic condition.  It seems we cannot generate enough steam to reduce the tension in our own lives, much less others. We are more or less ‘babes in the woods’ when it comes to anything of spiritual consequence.  We can only hope that He goes before us, unlocking doors, and making us look important.

But these verses do act as an encouragement.  He fully intends that we step into a door that has been widened and opened for us to step through, right into a room of full grace and assurance.  He intends that we make it real, and accept all that is done for us, in His grace and mercy.

Prayer is incredible.  When we finally begin to understand, we start to see that He is actively encouraging us to step’ into the wind.’  To stand and not be ‘wimps’.  To become disciples who are open to seeing things that take on a supernatural significance; so we must make the decision to become sensitive to the needs of others.

The Father is excavating a deeper place for us to pray.  As we step into this new place, we find an increased amplitude to extend ourselves into the lives of the struggling among us.  There becomes for us a new place of a strong intercession, something that is substantially fresh and aware.  It doesn’t seem to get more sophisticated, only more gentle and alert.

But we must pray.  We must engage the enemy that tries to advance.  To fail in doing this leaves many unprotected and vulnerable.  It really is not acceptable for us to let Satan roll over our friend’s hearts and lives.  We must provide resistance and strength to our loved ones. They may never know the prayer we offered them; until heaven.

Prayer is our key, and we need to move with it in a deliberate and direct manner.  So much of the enemy’s focus is directed towards our times of prayer.  Prayer disturbs him.  He tries to ‘corral’ us and to reduce our access to the Father.  But if we only press forward, we will find a freedom and liberty waiting for us.

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“Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our person- but they are helpless against our prayer. Fellow Christians who love the cause of Christ- to prayer! To prayer!  The times are calling us to it. We must press on.”

 — Sidlow Baxter

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Thirsty For the Real? [Psalm 42]

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This particular Psalm is used by pastors and Christian therapists frequently in their counseling. It powerfully resonates to those afflicted with mental illness and the myriad of issues we all have to deal with. It is God’s word to this generation. It meets us precisely where we are at today.

For me personally, it is a potent antidepressant and reading it encourages me.  I copied this selection from Eugene Peterson’s “The Message.”  I so hope that it releases and refreshes you.  Read it slowly, and let it work inside you. (I use this translation sometimes to get a fresh take on the Word.) Try to read through it slowly, and maybe out loud, for maximum effect. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you.

Psalm 42

A psalm of the sons of Korah

 1-3 A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek;
I want to drink God,
deep draughts of God.
I’m thirsty for God-alive.
I wonder, “Will I ever make it—
arrive and drink in God’s presence?”
I’m on a diet of tears—
tears for breakfast, tears for supper.
All day long
people knock at my door,
Pestering,
“Where is this God of yours?”

 4 These are the things I go over and over,
emptying out the pockets of my life.
I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd,
right out in front,
Leading them all,
eager to arrive and worship,
Shouting praises, singing thanksgiving—
celebrating, all of us, God’s feast!

 5 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God.

 6-8 When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse
everything I know of you,
From Jordan depths to Hermon heights,
including Mount Mizar.
Chaos calls to chaos,
to the tune of whitewater rapids.
Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers
crash and crush me.
Then God promises to love me all day,
sing songs all through the night!
My life is God’s prayer.

 9-10 Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God,
“Why did you let me down?
Why am I walking around in tears,
harassed by enemies?”
They’re out for the kill, these
tormentors with their obscenities,
Taunting day after day,
“Where is this God of yours?”

 11 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God.

~Selah.

 

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Waiting Time is Never Wasted Time

“Wait for the Lord’s help.
Be strong and brave,
and wait for the Lord’s help.”

Psalm 27:14, NCV

Much of the Bible describes people’s interaction with God. Almost always they end up waiting for God to fulfill His promises to them.  They wait and wait.  Often God takes them right to 11:59, and then shows up in some miraculous way.That is just the way it is.

The Lord’s people have always been a waiting people. 

Waiting is quite beneficial to us.  Like a slow stream, it takes time for things to settle, we are often turbulent, and waiting helps us calm down.  Slowly the stream becomes clear and clean.  When our faith is tested; we develop patience and submission.  And when the blessing comes to us, we will savor it even more.

‘Waiters’ are actually reflectors on the promises of God yet to be.  It’s promised, but not yet.  Hebrews 11 is this very powerful statement of people waiting in faith.  Read this chapter and look at them waiting.  Each one is looking for a promise yet to come.  Some wait well, and others, not so much.

Waiting time will never be wasted time. 

 We should weave that into the fabric of our hearts.  Waiting is not like sitting in a room for your to see the doctor.  When I sit in a waiting room, I browse through old and tattered copies Newsweek and four year old National Geographics.  I study the other people who are also waiting, sometimes like a detective trying to understand the story of their lives up to this point.  I look at my watch a lot.

Waiting on God is not supposed to be like this. When the Word speaks to us of waiting, it has a great deal to say about humility. When we wait well, we start softening.  God’s waiting room is the place where we spend a large percentage of our lives.  It is an active spot where we put ourselves in the sovereignty of God.  We see ourselves on His timetable, not ours.

“Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.” 

Heb. 11:1

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