Day 270: He Humbled Himself

Philippians 2:6-9

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names,

humble-having or showing a modest or low estimate of one's own importance.

My favorite part about this passage is when it says, He humbled Himself in obedience to God. Because Jesus is God in the flesh, He is the Kings of Kings, and God sent Him down to earth to be a servant. It says ‘though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.’ He gave up His throne in heaven, he gave up His divine privileges in order to be in and obey the will of God. Because of this wonderful act of humility we have received the gift of salvation. Because the king decided to give up His throne and die a criminal’s death on our behalf we are saved, we are set free. Because of this God honored Him. It says God elevated Him to the place of highest honor.

Sometime we are seeking honor without humility. What I mean is that we are often walking through life arrogantly and seeking honor in our arrogance. Honor comes from God and we cannot walk arrogantly before Him and think that we should be honored. If Jesus Himself who was fully God and fully man humbled Himself before the Lord, who are we to walk as if we are better than anyone. We do not require honor, as a matter of fact we do not deserve it. If anyone should walk in humility it should be us, we were dying in our sin until Jesus came. We could not get ourselves out of sin, and for that reason we should walk humbly and obediently before God.

A lot of times we’re seeking honor and glory from God over looking the relationship. Overlooking the fact that we must humble ourselves before Him. He is not going to honor us in our arrogance and conceit. He’s looking for people that will humble themselves before Him. Stepping off our high horses to serve Him and His people. When I think about this, I think about the fact that we are seeking worldly honor. That’s the problem, we are seeking honor from man and not from God. That’s where we go wrong. We try to elevate ourselves among man, and when we get it we act as if we are better than the next person or above someone else. We start to idolize this idea of importance, honor, or fame.

Something I constantly pray for is humility, because I never want to get into the mindset of thinking that I am better than anyone else, or too good to do the dirty work or even worse, that I don’t need God because I can handle it on my own. Everytime I get on my high horse God knocks me right back down to earth, because I want to live and walk in humility with HIm. If we do not humble ourselves before Christ we cannot grow. How are we going to survive if we cannot grow in Christ?

All this to say, if we want to walk with God and live like Christ, we must humble ourselves. Yes, we all have a specific importance, and a purpose but that does not warrant us to walk as if we deserve honor. We must take the example from Christ and humble ourselves in obedience before the Lord. Jesus gave up a throne, and took on the death of a sinner, so we can have salvation. When we think of that we can climb down off our high horse and serve the living God.

Reflection

1. Can you say that you are truly walking humbly before the Lord?
2. Can you remember a time when you were arrogant?
3. Do you think that we can grow in Christ if we are arrogant and boastful in ourselves?
4. Are you clinging to worldly honor?
5. Or do you want to be honored and elevated in Christ?

Prayer Time

Allow you answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God about walking humbly before Him, ask Him to search your heart and bring to your attention the things that are not like Him. Spend time with Him, confessing and glorifying Him.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 271!

Day 235: Merely Vessels

1 Corinthians 3:5-7

After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.

We are merely vessels used by God to bring forth His purpose for people on Earth. We are vessels through which His word is revealed to His people. I want to talk about this today because I think sometimes we can get caught up in the idea that we are the ones doing God’s work, and not Him doing it through us. We can get a big head sometimes and a bit arrogant. Without Him we would not have anything to give or do. So sometimes we have to check ourselves like, ‘Chill, go sit down somewhere and have a glass of humility.’ I love that Paul starts this statement off with a question, basically asking, “Who am I and who is Apollos?” Like who do you think I am, or who do you think I think I am. We sometimes view ourselves as more than what we actually are. It’s like a need to feel or be important.  We are simply God’s servants, just vessels here to be used by God. We’re only here to do what God has told us to do, and at the end of the day, what matters most is that God did the increase. Yes, we are vessels of God’s word, but we have to know that He doesn’t need us, He wants us. He wants us here planting and watering seeds so that He can make the increase. He wants to use us to bring His good news to the people, but that does not mean that the show stops when we decide to make ourselves unavailable. Paul goes on to say, I did one thing, Apollos did another but without God it would have never grown. He did the increase, not us. It doesn’t matter who watered or who planted all that matters is that God made it grow. At the end of the day, God is the only one who can make us grow, the only one who can increase us. Which brings me to my next point.

We often give God’s praise to man. Meaning we credit the people God used instead of giving honor where it is due. While God sends people in our lives to help us grow and elevate us, we must make sure that we realize it is God who is working through them. We can honor people for what they have done, and thank people, and show our gratitude, there’s nothing wrong with that. It becomes a sin when we begin to take away what God is doing in our lives and give all the credit and honor to man. God has gotten us where we are today, He has used man to help along the way but God is behind it all.

I love Chance The Rapper, but there is a specific moment in his career I want to highlight, and it’s when he won his Grammy for best new artist. He might have set the record for how many times someone has thanked God in an award speech. I love the fact that he thanked God for the position he is in. He thanked God for the people around him that helped make him winning a grammy possible. He gave God all the credit, for everything. He knows that if it wasn’t for God he wouldn’t have the people in his life that pushed him, helped him, and supported him. God is the mastermind behind it all.

All this to say, God is behind everything. No matter how much we plant or how much we water, until God does the increase, nothing will happen. God deserves the praise for all of it, let’s not take it away from Him and give it to someone else.

Reflection/ Prayer Time

1. Take the time to think about and thank God for the people in your life, that God has placed there to get you where you are today,
2. Next take the time to realize that we are merely vessels and thank Him for using us to bring forth His word to people.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 236!

Day 48: Parent Appreciation Day

Proverbs 23:22-25

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy truth, and do not sell it;buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.Let your father and mother be glad;let her who bore you rejoice.

If you grew up with strict parents, respect was taught to us at a young age, it was ingrained in us. We were told to respect our parents, our elders, and our peers.

If you grew up with parents who knew anything about scripture, you heard at one point or another, Exodus 20:12, “Honor your father and mother so that your days may be longer on earth.” and if you had a smart mouth like my sister, at one point your response to this statement was the beginning of Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers provoke your child not to wrath.” every time the pastor talked about disobedient and rude kids your mother broke her neck to look at you. We love our parents, but sometimes we don’t always like our parents. I’m just being honest. Sometimes we aren’t as respectful as we should be. Sometimes we forget that no matter how old we are, we will always be our parents’ child. Sometimes we just forget to appreciate our parents.

Countless times throughout the entire bible we are told to honor our parents, to listen to their wise counsel, not to disgrace our father's house, but to listen honor, and obey.

Colossians 3:20

Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.

Proverbs 1:8-9

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

God personally chose our parents, he did not just pick two random people to take care of us, God gave us the people in our lives that would raise us right, that would teach us and show us how to live an abundant life. These are not always the people who created and gave birth to us. No, our parents aren’t perfect but neither are we, they are doing the job God has given them, being our parent.

At some point we lost that innocent unconditional love we had for our parents. Not that we don’t love them, but we’ve lost that shine we had when we were kids. When they were our heroes, and we leaned on them for everything. When all we wanted was to make our parents proud. There was a time when we wanted nothing more than to spend time with our parents. As we got a little older that dependency started to fade, and we started to need them less. Sometimes as our dependency fades our respect fades. We started going through changes, and our minds started to mature and we got to a point where we ‘no longer needed’ our parents. They raised us and brought us up right, yet when we got older we went against it. We have all gone through a time of declaring our independence and feeling like we don’t need to listen to our parents anymore.  Yes, we love our parents but how often do we tell them? We appreciate them but do they know it? Our parents love us so much, more than we could ever imagine, no matter how upset they are with us, or how much we fight with them, their love doesn’t fade. It is important that we understand how much our parents just want what is best for us. Sometimes we don’t listen because we think we know it all, and sometimes our parents are wrong. But for the many times they’re not, we have to learn to accept their wisdom, learn from them, because one day we’re going to wake up and and all of sudden we’re a parent and we will understand all of the things our parents told us when we were younger.

I don’t think we understand how happy it makes our parents when we just call to say, “i love you, or i appreciate you.” They want nothing more than for us to be happy, and as we get older we will start to recall the teachings of our parents. We will start to appreciate all the things we didn’t like when we were younger I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in conversations and caught myself saying; ‘Well my mom always said…” or “My dad taught me this..” And it is a great feeling to just sit a realize, my parents were right. To realize that even at my worst moments my parents had my best interest at heart. That even when I didn't want to listen their consistency, and strict parenting made me the person I am. It was always so that I could be a better person. Parents are the most selfless people in the world. They put their children ahead of them everyday. I thank God for my parents, even though my father is no longer with us.

Some of us don’t have our parents with us anymore, and I understand that. I lost my dad when I was eighteen, but everything he taught me up until the day he died is ingrained in me. I can find comfort in knowing that even though I didn’t have him as long as I would have liked, God allowed him to raise me and show me a way that was right. He gave me a father who would teach me how to love, and be loved, how would teach me about life, and the little things that matter the most. So when God called Him home, yes it shattered me but His wisdom and what he taught me while he was here will forever be ingrained on my heart.

-Dyamond

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Many times when we get older we break our parents hearts by straying away from their teachings. We go against the grain, and act as if we forget what they taught us,  But it is the prayers of our parents and our grandparents and our forefathers that keep us going. We might stray but we will never depart, we will always find a way back home. That wise counsel, and those morals that have been taught to us will bring us back every time. It is because god gave us parents who would pray for us and love us even when we screw up, even when we break their hearts. They are always waiting with open arms to forgive and accept us. Just like When the prodigal son returned home.

Reflection/Prayer Time

Take the time to just think about all the things your parents, guardians, and/or parental figures has done for you. Thank God for them, thank God for putting them in your life. And pray for your parents, or the people you consider or call your parents. When all is done, call you parents today and tell them you love them, send a card, write a letter. Do something to show your parents that you appreciate them. We don't have to wait until Mother's or Father's Day for our parents to know how much we love and appreciate them.

This might be hard for those of us who have lost parents, but thank God for the time you had with them. Remember the good things about them, and how they helped mold and shape you into the person you are today. I love you.

Have an awesome day or evening. I love you so much. MAke sure you come back tomorrow for day 49!