"Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you." James 4:10
It’s Saturday and tomorrow we will spend a brief amount of time going through the worship service where we will our ‘sins’ before God. The word sins is usually printed in lower case in the worship folder; they should probably be UPPER CASE, but that would not be politically correct. We read a statement of confession and then are given a time to silently dwell on where we strayed the past week. Lutherans usually are given five to eight seconds to recall what we did and for me, that is usually way too short.
What does it mean to humble ourselves? God knows my physical limitations and that I can’t get down on my knees, repent and beg for mercy. It’s hard to be humble if you can’t recall any times that you strayed away from where you should have been. If that is the case, we need to ask God to take me as I am and show me where I have strayed yesterday and teach me which way to go today and tomorrow. The above passage tells us to humble ourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you. Humble yourself not after He exalts you, but humble yourself now. Not just on Sunday morning but every day. Don’t wait until tomorrow or Sunday; do it now. In time, you will surely notice how wonderfully He will quiet your spirit and transport you to a realm of contentment you've never known before. The learned ones in this fallen world demand answers; how can humbling yourself bring peace? When we believers humble ourselves, repent and seek to walk closer with our Lord we find peace as we trust in Him who died on the cross for our SINS. What a price our Savior paid for our Eternal inheritance. Please join these young believers from Haiti who will be humbling themselves tomorrow. Repent and find peace in the knowledge that you are saved.
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay