Words of Encouragement

Picture taken by James S. Williams. What a thought, I can be lifted above the things that would want to pull me down, bind me up and keep me from seeing the vastness of God's goodness before me.

The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. - Matthew 23:11-13

Humble Yourself. God will exalt. Talking about humbling yourself isn't a popular thought in our society today. Listen to any motivational speech and you hear the go get it all lines. Grasp all you can. People fight for positions, for names, for recognition without care of anyone else they may hurt.

Yet, we miss something great. God does not give honor to those that will walk over another for their own purposes. Instead, God says humble yourself. Don't exalt yourself because those are the ones that God will bring low. Why? God wants no one to place themselves above his ways and his will. When you refuse to be concerned with others, you have placed yourself above what God requires from his children.

In this scripture it even speaks about those that have exalted themselves to the place of supreme authority. What that means is there are those that have made themselves the authority on how others should do things (in this instance worship the Lord). The message to them is you are hypocrites. You do not even follow what is right yourself and then you cause difficulty for those that want to do it right.

I pray for us today that we humble ourselves before God and when the time for promotion comes, he will be the one that will exalt us.