06/11/2018
Do you boast in your accomplishments in faith? Do you think yourself better than another because you quote more scripture, appear more saintly, or are of greater righteousness than another? Well if you are any of these things it is not of your doing, and if you feel boastful it is to your detriment because these things are in you as a result of our God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ alone.
“God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."”
1 Corinthians 1:28-31 ESV
Our God is a great God and as we seek Him, and He interacts with us, it becomes easy to misconstrue our sanctification as being the result of our own doing. His majesty abounds and as we bask in it we can mistake who He is, and what He is doing in us, as being the result of our effort. In this way we place our quest for Him and belief in Him, above what He imparted when we found Him. We take the salvation of Christ and claim we somehow deserved it, and yet what we deserve Christ took upon Himself at Calvary. All we are is because of Him, and the grace of God.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Romans 3:23-26 ESV
So who are we if we are not lowly sinners? Who are we that God should chose to love us? If we think we are better than another, we fool ourselves. If we think that what we have within us is better than the same God, the same Jesus, the same Holy Spirit, that is working out God’s good purposes in another then we have come up against our own shortcoming, and the outward wall that sets the limit of our faith. We have reached the point where we are crossing wholeheartedly into our own sinfulness once more. This is a dangerous place where the scales of our faith begin to move against us.
“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.”
Proverbs 16:1-2 ESV
If we have a faith that exceeds another’s, or an understanding that is deeper than the one that God has brought us into contact with, that someone else is struggling with, then God has brought us together with this person that we might pour some of our realized faith into that waiting vessel, and bring the understanding He has given us into this soul where it didn’t exist before.
What we must understand is that these things in us are not ours, but given us to share, that they might further glorify God. We are nothing more than earthen vessels that have undeservedly been filled with the finest wine... we are the repurposed jars that once contained water, but through the effort of Jesus have come to hold a miracle, one that can now be served to all the guests at the wedding... but should the wine be removed... we would be left once more as empty earthen jars.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5 ESV
So we should abandon our piety, and give all the glory to God from which our gifts come. We are here to reflect his light, and are not suns, but simple mirrors. We are not heavenly wine but earthen vessels, and nothing sets us apart from another except that God chooses it to be that way.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for filling me with your gifts; thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who has redeemed me, and your Holy Spirit that comforts me and gives me understanding. Help me Holy Father to understand that my righteousness is of you, and has simply been poured into this earthen vessel that I might bring you glory, and reflect your goodness and grace. Teach me Merciful Father to dip into myself and give cups of your wine to others, to hold the wick and oil that allows your light to shine forth, and not to claim your taste, and your light as my own... help me to realize that doing thus makes me an encumbrance to the quest for faith of others. Let my spirit be humble, and your presence in me be what others see. You are the wedding wine within me, and the oil that provides light from the simple clay lamp I am. Shine forth Holy Father, for Holy, Holy, Holy, are you the light of the world, and the wine of the feast of your Son.
“for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:13 ESV
Rich Forbes