BROKENNESS, HUMILITY, AND HEALING

 

 

We are wild horses which need broken to serve our intended purpose.

Dignity demands humility.

Humility blossoms from the ashes of brokenness.

 

Humility is the seedbed of wisdom.

Humility is a beggar who acknowledges his poverty and looks for riches beyond himself.

 

Humility is a flower opening and flowing the sun to bask in its rays. It extends itself to the light of Truth and closes to the darkness of self-preoccupation.

 

Humility is our lens. It brings clarity. It is a calm lake, which precisely reflects trees on its bank.

Pride is blind. It invents its own images - what it wants to see. Instead, of seeing the trees, it has magnified itself to obscure all else.

 

Humility provides the lens to self- and God-knowledge. Before we can learn to trust Him and to step to His lead, we need to learn self-distrust. Only one can be in the saddle, a seat we must surrender along with the bridle.

 

Surrender to the Master brings peace. It is freedom from surrender to the tyranny of man’s opinions and even our own.

SCRIPTURE HUMBLES AND THEN BUILDS US

Scripture afflicts us in many ways. It calls us to meet standards too high to attain.  Scripture makes us feel unworthy, guilty, and inadequate. God often informed His chosen that they are to be as holy as He:

• “For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy." (Leviticus 11:45) 

What a burden! We want to run away from a requirement that inevitably leads to frustration and failure. I certainly tried to run away but to where? To the NT? However, there too we are smacked in the face with the very same requirement:

• As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:14-16) 

It soon became apparent that I could not fulfill such a calling, and years later, I realized that no one else could.

For years, I wanted to turn away from this demanding God, but I couldn't. I had no other place to go.

However, Scripture slowly revealed a blessed purpose for my failures and inadequacies. In fact, there is a purpose for all of our hardships.

Paul informed us that he had suffered so that he too wanted to give it all up:

• For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)

Ordinarily, we like to delight in ourselves. We too must learn the lesson of self-despair so that we can learn to glory God alone (Psalm 62).

Some lessons can only be learned through despair and suffering. If we found that we were successful in keeping Jesus' commands, we would become arrogant and self-righteous, the very thing our Lord abhors (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

Failure and self-despair nurtures other essential fruits. As the Spirit illuminates Scripture for us, we begin to become grateful that He would love and persevere with us, in the face of the growing awareness of our unworthiness. 

I wouldn't have understood His love had I regarded myself as a successful Christian. Instead, I would have understood His grace as an entitlement, something I deserved, because I am deserving.

Spiritual growth requires the understanding that it's not about what I have earned for God but what Jesus has earned for me. He has taught me that if I have Him, I have everything that I need (Col. 2:8-10). I am inadequate, but He is my total adequacy (2 Cor. 3:5). 

In this, I rejoice. However, I would not be able to rejoice in Him as long as I was convinced that it is about my performance. Yet He comforts me by assuring me that it’s about the One who took all of my sins upon Himself:

• I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

I am convinced that it is only through self-despair and suffering that we could come to this assurance and freedom – the freedom from trying to prove ourselves deserving. Once we despair in ourselves, we can only look to our Savior:

• Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:12-13)

It is our failures and suffering that weans us away from the love of the ways of this world and focuses us upon our only hope - the return of our Savior. Our cry becomes, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”

I now know that I need to be humbled and readied for Him by the impossible but necessary commands of our Lord. They continue to remind me that it’s all about His gift of righteousness, and this is freeing.

A BROKEN, TRANSPARENT, AND TRULY APPEALING CHURCH

I hate false, unbiblical teaching, which poses as Biblical. I know that “hate” is a strong word, but I think that it is warranted here. Look at Paul’s reaction to those who had been preaching a false gospel:

·       But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9; ESV)

Yesterday, online, I was deeply grieved to read several testimonies of people who had departed from the faith. How did this happen? They had all been assured by the teachers of their churches that they should experience evidences of the Holy Spirit guiding them. They should be able to hear His voice and experience His presence. However, they didn’t and concluded that they were something the matter with them. Years later, they confessed:

·       "One of the main issues I had with trying to believe for so many years was no voice, no feeling of presence, no nothing. My only options were people were pretending or fooling themselves.

·       Everyone else I was surrounded by always seemed to hear that voice [of God], and I never really did, which is why I struggled a lot as far as fearing that I was doing something wrong or sinning all the time. I so much wanted to just follow God and obey him and hear him, and I tried and tried over the years. Everyone always seemed so confident about what God was "calling" them to do… I never felt confident confirmation like everyone else always seemed to have. Not hearing him wasn't what made me lose faith, but after I did stop believing, I was able to look back and realize there's a reason I didn't hear him."

Both of these young ladies had ceased to believe and insisted, and even though they had wanted Christ, they are now no longer interested.

Please, before you dismiss these two accounts by concluding, “Well, evidently, they were never part of the elect and never really believers, please consider Jesus’ condemnation of false teaching:

·       Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:52)

Jesus didn’t question whether those “hindered” were actually part of the elect. For Him, it was enough that they had been hindered.

Or consider Paul’s lamentation:

·       For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. (Titus 1:10-11)

Whatever their motive, these false teachers had misled many, even driving some away from the faith.

What had driven those women away? Disappointment, doubt, and the tormenting sense that there must be something the matter with them!

Please understand, I am not trying to say that God doesn’t intervene miraculously. He does. However, because of doubts and a large dose of spiritual insecurity, many speak as if God is always audibly talking to them, and that this should be the expectation for any Christian.

Well, doesn’t the Spirit guide us and shouldn’t we have a sense or experience of this? Not necessarily. God is able to infallibly lead us without having a sense of His leading. There are so many biblical examples of God infallibly leading even those who were enemies of God. He was able to bring pagan kings to march their armies against nations He wanted to chasten.

The martyr Stephen had explained to his executors:

·       “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.” (Acts 7:9-10)

God leading the kings and the Pharaoh didn’t require them to hear the voice of God. Instead, our God is able to lead, even pagans, to perform the very service that He requires:

·       The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. (Proverbs 21:1)

God had been leading Israel’s first king, Saul, to the Prophet Samuel who would anoint him king. However, Saul was aware of only one thing. He was pursuing his donkeys who had run off. Meanwhile, God informed Samuel:

·       “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me.” (1 Samuel 9:15-16)

God was able to perfectly lead Saul to the exact place He intended without Saul having a clue about was really going on. This is why we are taught to trust in the Lord rather than to listen for His voice:

·       So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:6-7)

While God can provide miraculous reassurances, we mustn’t demand them like doubting Thomas who refused to believe unless Christ would appear to him. However, after Christ did appear to Thomas, He also reprimanded him:

·       Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

Also, blessed are those who believe without hearing His voice. We are to trust in God’s leading without demanding evidence:

·       Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Some pastors attempt to validate their spirituality and authority by claiming that they hear God speak certain messages to them. While God can do this, a person who claims to be a prophet must also live up to the requirements of a prophet:

·       But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)

My prayer is that we would learn the lesson God had taught Paul. So that Paul wouldn’t become proud of virtue of his spiritual insights, God had afflicted Him and wouldn’t remove the affliction, despite Paul’s many prayers. Finally, Paul got the message – that he should boast in his weakness and infirmities and not in his spiritual successes:

·       But he [God] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Perhaps if Christians would be more transparent about their weaknesses, the church might become a more hospitable place for the suffering and the weak.

What does it take to become more accepting of our brokenness and neediness? Faith! Simple believing that it is no longer about us but about the One who loves us (Gal. 2:20)!

I asked the two women (and many others) if there is anything that can now be said to make things better – anything that might bring them back to Christ. They both resolutely informed me that this ship has already sailed, and that they are now glad to be without the church.

WELCOME WHAT HUMBLES AND HEALS

·       “There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord cast out before the people of Israel.” (1 Kings 21:25-26; ESV)

However, when King Ahab heard God's judgment against him, he humbled himself, and this made all the difference. Therefore, God informed His prophet Elijah:

·       “'Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days I will bring the disaster upon his house.'” (1 Kings 21:29)

Humility is so important before our Lord that He reversed Himself entirely regarding the worst of Israel's kings. It’s also important for us! Even the greatest of God's servants had to endure the severest  humbling experiences. After God had deprived Job of everything, he was angry with God, but even he had to be humbled so that he'd repent of his pride and rash charges against his God:

·       “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.” (Job 40:4-5)

·       “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6)

Paul had to be humbled with a "messenger from Satan" to prevent him from becoming proud (2 Cor. 12:7-10). Clearly, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5)

I, therefore, must welcome and even embrace those things that humble me, however painful and discouraging they may be. Although Satan means them for evil, our Lord uses them to heal and conform us into His image.

And, by the way, don’t be surprised if these humbling experiences don’t make you feel cleansed but filthy and totally unworthy of anyway good from God. That’s what humbling is all about!