Pride is the great destroyer, humility builds and protects!
Monday, April 19, 2021
To Become Like Christ
Often the way someone thinks about us is the way they want to believe to remain hateful. If they looked at us in reality they would see a normal person with flaws and warts but also see the gifts and talents. To see only the flaws and warts is a sign there is bitterness.
We need to be evaluating our own attitudes while asking God to reveal the truth to us so that we do not get caught in the trap of believing something merely to elevate ourselves.
We can also see the antics of others against us as lessons to be learned and the devil behind it but Christ meaning it for good.
When we see life from this perspective we can maintain our joy and peace.
It is only pride that causes us to grieve over mistakes and sins that have been forgiven through repentance. Our pride says we are "too good" to do such a thing. But humility says; "yep, there I go again, Lord remove this nonsense from me."
Pride prevents people from growing and changing.
Pride creates jealousy that someone else might be better and we must make sure they know they are not better.
Pride is what motivates people to compete with others. It is humility that isn't comparing ourselves with others but comparing ourselves to God. When we do this we will never feel superior to anyone.
When humility is present we will pray for those who have not yet met Christ, rather than feeling superior. After all, without Christ, we were no better than they, and we remain no better than they, it is only Christ Who is good.
When our focus is Christ we want others to gain what we did, that is Christ living in them so they can experience the joy, peace, and eternal life that we now have.
Those who are in competition with others to be superior can never have a burden for lost souls or hurting believers.
When we are focused on Christ and not ourselves we have no desire to be superior. Our desire is to bless our brothers and sisters while sharing the gospel with the lost. Self is nearly irrelevant in this calling, the less we focus on self the better off we are emotionally and spiritually.
Matthew 15:8 “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 24:7 “I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.”
Psalm 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.”
John 17:3 “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Pride is the great destroyer, humility builds and protects.
You Cannot Change Yourself
We cannot change ourselves, we must be changed by Christ. We can try to change ourselves only to revert as soon as the change becomes burdensome, one has to keep trying! But when Christ changes us we need not try, we become hard-wired to think the way He thinks. The WAY we process information is the WAY we act and think. Christ changes our minds to think the WAY He thinks.
Ephesians 2:10
"10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
John 14:5-7 "5 “Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”…'
When we think like Christ because He lives in us and we seek Him for all things, then we will speak and act the WAY we think without effort.
Romans 8:10
10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness."
4. Galatians 2:20—“It is Christ who lives in me”
“I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.”
If we keep trying in our flesh to be good, we will keep failing, but if we trust in Christ to change us then we will act Christlike without even having to think about it.
How can a fallen and sinful man do anything to change his sinfulness?...... He cannot, it must be Christ Who does the changing in us. If you are trying in the flesh you will fail and it will not count with God. Even if you think you have succeeded, you have diluted yourself, real change and permanent eternal change comes only from Christ from the inside.
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