Hands and Feet

That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

-James 4:6 (NIV)

Do you ever feel like when God is teaching you something or you’ve been talking about something that God is teaching you, He tests you even more?

I have felt like that a lot lately.

Ever since I have been blogging about humility and how God is helping rid me of my pride, I have had more temptations lately.

But when I want to tell someone something great that I have been doing or thinking about, I have been trying to stop myself and ask, “What is my main aim here? Is it to gain their admiration? Is it to make them think I’m cool?”

I have gotten to a point in my life in which I honestly do not want my name to be known but I want His to be known through my words and my actions.

Through my prideful actions, I have hurt a lot of people and I do know that. I wish I could apologize to each and every person.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

-Socrates

I agree with Socrates because compared to everything there is to know, I probably know less than 0.000000001% of all the knowledge there is. There are hundreds of websites created each day with new information about new technologies from new companies.

There is no way that one could possibly know everything.

Except God…

God knows you. He knows me. He knows everything about this world. He knows everything about this universe. He designed quantum physics. He designed the central nervous system. He designed our DNA.

One thing that God has been speaking to me about throughout this humbling experience is that as Christians and as human beings we are called to serve others.

Jesus said...

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

-John 15:13 (KJV)

We are called to be servants of Christ. We are called to put on the armor of God every single morning and allow God to work through us in every situation. Every interaction we have with others is a God-given opportunity to show God’s love to others.

I’m going to admit...This is hard.

But it is so worth it.

As servants of Christ, I do not think we are called to let others take advantage of us. But I do believe that if we let God work through us in our relationships with others, God can do miraculous things.

Some of my pride comes from trying to prove myself to others and to myself. As a child, I went through unimaginably bad circumstances and as a result, I grew up feeling like a nobody, like I had nothing to offer to this world. But at the same time, I overcame many challenges, I focused on my gifts to the point that all I wanted to do was talk about my gifts instead of letting people know my deep feelings of hurt and despair. I did not really let anybody into that deep, dark part. I wanted them only to see my gifts and talents.

Throughout this experience, I have learned that I do not need to prove myself to anybody. All I need to do is allow God to work through me.

This is a process and we make mistakes. I still have moments when I feel prideful or that I need to prove myself because of the deep feelings of shame and guilt. But in those moments, God keeps changing and transforming me to be who He needs me to be in this world, if we let Him.

I know that He will do the same for you, no matter what you are personally dealing with.

I’m going to leave you with a song by one of my favorite bands, Casting Crowns. It talks about different situations in the church in which people feel left out and it begs the questions about why the church is not being the “hands and feet” of God as much as we can be. I think part of that is humbling ourselves before God and truly surrendering our lives so that He can change the world through us.