'Deny Yourself' - Part 3
| 1 Peter 5:6 - 'Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:' |
Being humble does not mean that you are weak. It just means that you are not trying to be in the spotlight or the focus of others. It simply means that you know how to allow God to show himself through you instead of you showing yourself through God. We should never get to the point where we use God to prove something to someone. We cannot use God as a vice to prove that we are special or better than what someone said we are. God is tired of being used by man to make man feel special or uplifted! He struck Herod down in the bible because he will share his glory with no man. God does not give us gifts and callings to overcome negative comments and opinions. He gives us gifts to bring the Kingdom of God to earth! But in so many cases, people have failed in the real world (family, school, job, goals, etc) and they want to use the church as a platform to be uplifted and raised up to feel good about themselves.
You see, our churches are plagued with insecure ministers and pastors. People that could not hold up a steady job in the workplace, or that may not have been very smart in their school years. Many of them where ridiculed in their younger years for being overweight, unattractive, or other physical characteristics that may have caused them to be talked about. So, when they develop a talent or ability that makes them stand out and be noticed, many times, it becomes a tool to boost their esteem and they use it to overcome the negative opinions of others. You can always tell when this is the case because they will always talk about what people once said about them. "They said I'd never make it" or "They said I would be nothing" and so on. Then when they use the Christian platform to overcome these issues, they began to abuse their God given ability and use it for their own gain rather than for the growing of the Kingdom of God. They perform and exalt themselves and God gets nothing out of it! We have so many people that are pastoring churches, national Gospel recording artists, evangelists, etc. and their whole focus is proving someone wrong! Yet their personal lives are usually plagued with sin because God is not their God, but he is their tool to get back at people and boost themselves. Because he is not their Lord, they don't serve him, but they serve themselves and worship themselves through sexual sin and self exaltation. All the while, they are preaching, singing, and performing all over the place, and their heart is set to "self" and not God. The saddest part of it all is that other preachers, performers, and talented Christians see their so called success and want to mimic it and achieve what they feel is success from God, but it's really just self promotion and talent! People, please hear me. Always check your heart for your true motivation when you are doing things for God. Make sure you are not trying to be seen or show yourself. Make sure you are not trying to prove something to someone. Make sure that if you weren't getting paid at all to do it, you would still do it with the same intensity. If you got no recognition at all and no one noticed you, would you still be doing it? Check your heart people of God and make sure that you are denying yourself.
Suggested Reading: Matt. 23:12, Luke 14:11, 2Cor. 10:5, James 4:6, James 4:10, 1Pet. 5:5
© 2010 G. Craige Works All Rights Reserved http://www.exministries.com
You see, our churches are plagued with insecure ministers and pastors. People that could not hold up a steady job in the workplace, or that may not have been very smart in their school years. Many of them where ridiculed in their younger years for being overweight, unattractive, or other physical characteristics that may have caused them to be talked about. So, when they develop a talent or ability that makes them stand out and be noticed, many times, it becomes a tool to boost their esteem and they use it to overcome the negative opinions of others. You can always tell when this is the case because they will always talk about what people once said about them. "They said I'd never make it" or "They said I would be nothing" and so on. Then when they use the Christian platform to overcome these issues, they began to abuse their God given ability and use it for their own gain rather than for the growing of the Kingdom of God. They perform and exalt themselves and God gets nothing out of it! We have so many people that are pastoring churches, national Gospel recording artists, evangelists, etc. and their whole focus is proving someone wrong! Yet their personal lives are usually plagued with sin because God is not their God, but he is their tool to get back at people and boost themselves. Because he is not their Lord, they don't serve him, but they serve themselves and worship themselves through sexual sin and self exaltation. All the while, they are preaching, singing, and performing all over the place, and their heart is set to "self" and not God. The saddest part of it all is that other preachers, performers, and talented Christians see their so called success and want to mimic it and achieve what they feel is success from God, but it's really just self promotion and talent! People, please hear me. Always check your heart for your true motivation when you are doing things for God. Make sure you are not trying to be seen or show yourself. Make sure you are not trying to prove something to someone. Make sure that if you weren't getting paid at all to do it, you would still do it with the same intensity. If you got no recognition at all and no one noticed you, would you still be doing it? Check your heart people of God and make sure that you are denying yourself.
Suggested Reading: Matt. 23:12, Luke 14:11, 2Cor. 10:5, James 4:6, James 4:10, 1Pet. 5:5
© 2010 G. Craige Works All Rights Reserved http://www.exministries.com
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