Faith

How many of you actually saw the wind today? Not that many I'm sure. But how many of you saw the effects of the wind? Swaying trees, feeling it against your skin? Feeling the coolness? Seeing leaves float in the air? 

We have all seen the effects of the wind. We know that wind is there. 

It's the same with God. We can't always see Him but we can see Him moving. We feel Him. We see what He is doing. We just have to be looking.

Hebrews 11:1-3, "Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For our ancestors won God’s approval by it. By faith we understand that the universe was created by God’s command, so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible."

Matthew 14:27-31, 

 "When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and cried out in fear.

Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

 “Lord, if it’s You,” Peter answered Him, “command me to come to You on the water.”

 “Come!” He said.

And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

 Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”"

Do you have faith to walk on water? Do you focus on Jesus or on the storm around you? Do you trust God to catch you if you fall? 

We need to step out in faith, keeping our eyes on Jesus and not on the storm.

Go deeper: read Hebrews 11

True Humility part 2

True humility.

Last week I wrote about what humility is. This week I'm going to be talking about the greatest example for someone selfless.

Lets start off by reading Philippians 2:5-9. Its the passage I'm going to be talking about. I will show some of the verses, but it would be good for you to read it first. 

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I'll start in the beginning. Verse 6 is saying that even though Jesus Christ is God, He didn't use it to His own advantage. What does that even mean? When I read this in my devotions a few weeks ago I had to think about it for awhile, I've always overlooked it reading this passage, but it is important.

You know how when a person reaches a certain age, or gets this certain job then they are like, ' I don't need to listen to anyone but me.'

Jesus, the King of the universe, listened to His heavenly Father and let His will be done. He knew the cost. But He humbled Himself out of His love for His Father and us.

If Jesus listened to God's will and said, "thy will be done" then that should show us that we should do that. ( that verse can be found in Luke 22:42 ).

Verse 7 talks about how Jesus "emptied Himself by taking on the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men."  

Did you get that? The King of the world stepped down from His throne to come to our broken world to take on the form of a man. And for what? He was mocked, spit on, beaten, and died one of the most painful deaths in the history of mankind. Death on a cross. ( vs. 8 ) He did it for you, for me. He knew it was God's will and He humbled Himself to do it.  He, King, humbled Himself to become a man. Can you even imagine? Being King and on His rightful throne, then becoming a man, a son of a carpenter.

The last few verses talk about how God exalted Jesus afterwards. It reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 23:12, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

Jesus lived those words. He lives those words. He humbled Himself and God exalted Himself. That shows that what He said and still says is the truth.

I skipped verse 5 when I started so I am going to go back to it. It says, "Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,"

To make your attitude that of Jesus Christ you have to spend time with Him. In prayer, in His Word, just simply praising Him. The more a student spends time with a teacher the more like the teacher the student becomes. The more you spend time with Jesus, the more Christlike you become.

Jesus is the greatest example to follow. He is the One who you should try to act like. Not another sinner, we are all imperfect. 

So, Jesus is humble. We are to try to humble ourselves before our amazing God.

True Humility part 1

True humility.

What even is humility? Or selflessness? People are always saying to be humble, or selfless. But how? And what exactly is humility anyway? 

We humans have developed our  own idea of "humble". We think that humility is thinking that we are of less value, that way we do things for others. We think that just doing things for others is being selfless. We put ourselves down. We think our talent is less than so and so.

But we have it all wrong. I think C.S Lewis puts it best. He said, "True humility is not thinking less of yourself; but thinking of yourself less."

What that means is that you are so busy being focused on God and serving others that you don't even have time to think of yourself, of your talent or beauty or lack there of. When you focus on God you will want to serve Him, and as you serve you will forget yourself. You won't be worried about your appearance, your talent, or what you can't even do or what you are not. 

Ephesians 4:1-6, "Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love,diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all."

Colossians 3:12, "Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,"

Philippians 2:4, "Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."

Proverbs 11:2, "When pride comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom."

Zephaniah 2:3, "Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth, who carry out what He commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility."

The Bible mentions the words humility and humble 101 times.

Its important to not only read a blog post, devotional, or Jesus quotes, you need to be in God's Word. 

Not only that, but to live what you learn.

Living like Jesus.

God's Word

God's Word is truth. Spend time in truth. Spend time in God's Word.

Prayer is talking to God.

Reading the Bible is learning more about God.

James 4:8, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people!"

We need to spend time in God's Word. We should long to know more about Him and spend time in His presence.

I understand if it is hard to apply the Bible to your life, I have struggled with this too.

Before you read the Bible than pray for God to show you more about Him, and to help you learn from it, and to look at His Word through fresh eyes

And as you are reading the Bible ask yourself questions like "what can I learn from this," "what is this saying about God?' And so on.

Spend time in God's Word. And prayer. Spend some time with Jesus today.