Humbled or Humiliated

Each time I read Genesis 32 I am reminded that when I struggle with God‘s plan, His authority, or aspects of what I do not yet know, it will always result in either me bowing before His authority, or being crushed by it. And that’s the wonder of it! The most beautiful part about struggling with God is not the struggle itself, but the fact that we are ALWAYS pinned at the end.

Jacob was an entirely different man after the Lord touched his hip and won that fight. The trickster went from being a coward who hid behind his family and servants, to a man willing to own up to his own faults and led his caravan in meeting Esau. Wrestling with God will either humble you or humiliate you. Jacob becoming Israel was the conversion of a manipulator into a leader.

Also interesting to note is that Jacob never knew God as his own… it was always ‘the God of my father,’ or ‘the God of Abraham and of Isaac,’ but never MY God. Until after the struggle, that is. Right after the heavenly wrestling match Jacob built an altar and called it ‘the God of Israel.’ It was only after struggling with the Lord, obtaining a blessing, and being scarred for life via his hip injury, that Jacob understood God to be HIS OWN God.

You see, the point of wrestling with God is to be pinned. Because under His gracious hand is the best place to be, whether we humbly surrender ourselves, or if God needs to bust our hip to put us there.

#ReadThroughTheBibleInAYear #ToKnowHimMore

What’s Your Word?

🌿If “God speaks to you” with anything that is NOT directly from Scripture, be careful. Be VERY careful. He has already spoken. He continues to speak through His living Word. Are we listening? And to WHAT are we listening?

(RP/edit from 2019 via Ferocious Truth)

🌿As a side note, if you choose a “word” for your year, please first examine your heart and motives against Scripture. Have you been encouraged towards a facet of growth that you’ve purposed to give intentional focus to over the next year, and are using this single word as a rallying cry towards that aim, seeking Christ first as He continues to sanctify you? Then go for it!

🌿If, however, your word is a summons for God to team up with you to fulfill in your life everything you think that word implies, then take care you are not buying into a passive divination mindset.

🌿And if you’re not sure as to which camp in which your word rests, may I suggest your “word” be THE WORD? Get into a Bible study that studies GOD, rather than simply what you should do or who you should be. Read through the Bible (or even just the OT or NT) in a year. Start memorizing big chunks of scripture. Just get into THE Word.

🌿I really don’t have any problems with “choosing a word” for the year, as long as it is subservient to the primary focus of KNOWING GOD. Because, if you are seeking Him first, everything else will fall into place.

Self-love?

“Self-love.” That phrase gives me the heebie-jeebie-jibblies! And, as the New Year so often sirens us towards bettering ourselves (whether with the holiest or haughtiest of intentions), I wanted to briefly address the topic.

🌿The phrase “self-love” rankles me because it can be so anti-gospel, and head-butts the pursuit of the glory of God.

🌿I have not seen anywhere in Scripture where we are told to love ourself. The only place that comes to mind is “love your neighbor as yourself,” yet that seems to say that loving ourselves is already our default (self preservation naturally, and self-satisfying carnally), and we must simply use that understanding of how we already pursue our own comfort in order to better understand how to love other, rather than as a call to first love ourself and then love others. Additionally, Paul often calls us to deny ourselves, and led by example the art of loving others at the cost of our personal comfort.

🌿Now, this does not negate the stewardship of our physical bodies! We must keep ourselves safe, healthy, and whole, as much as within our ability to do so, yet not at the cost of any of God’s other mandates in our lives. I understand that a proper view of God will, in turn, give us a proper view of ourselves, and we must steward ourselves (and our understanding of our value as His image-bearers, and our position in Christ) well to His glory. That is NOT what the world calls “self-love,” but is moreso obedience and a proper response to the worth we carry as God’s beloved.

🌿At this point I hold that self-love is essentially pride (thus idolatry), and is what got Lucifer in trouble, Eve kicked out of the garden, and is at the heart of all of our world’s sin.

🌿At the heart of my discomfort with the phrase “self-love” is that is is so self-centered. We are not commanded to make ourselves better, live our best life, or even focus on making sure we look the most like Jesus. Instead we are command to FOCUS ON JESUS, and the fruit of that focus will be the bettering of ourselves, the best life lived, and the clearest reflection of Christ.

🌿We must practice JESUS-love. Biblical self-love is when we tie our Self to the altar and give it to Jesus, that HE might teach us to love all He has given us in light of loving Him first.

🌿Here is an EXCELLENT article that I would HIGHLY recommend: “No One Loved Himself Like Jesus.” May we all love Him first, best, and only, as we navigate that echo of love towards others and ourself this year. 🌿