low

He bends down

/ EllieJ / Leave a comment

If you want to speak to someone of consequence, you must first put yourself in a position to be heard. If I want to speak to the Queen of England, I’m going to need a better position than the one I have. I’ll probably need a title (which she’d have to give me, but never will because I’m not British) and more than a few connections (which I don’t have because I’ve never been to England). I’m never going to have a conversation with the Queen of England, even if we share the same name.

In order to even speak to, let alone ask for aid from, a person in power or of status, we generally have to be in a position of power or status ourselves. Us lowly citizens don’t have the ear of our nation’s leaders at any given moment.

We have a tendency to put these same requirements on God. Us lowly church members can’t just talk to God, we must have a mediator, someone with greater connections, someone with position.

What a load of garbage!

I love the Lord because he hears
and answers my prayers.
Because he bends down and listens,
I will pray as long as I have breath.

Psalm 116:1-2 (NLT)

A raised position is not on the list of requirements for approaching God. In fact, I believe that the lower we are, the more likely He is to respond because the lower our state, the more sincere our prayer.

If a child cries out to a parent, how does that parent respond? They bend down to listen. If a person trips and falls, how does a friend go to help? They bend down to listen.

We called out to God in our sinful state and He bent down to listen. If God has already stooped down to pull us from our sins, He will do it again and again and again.

It is when we are at our weakest, our lowest place, that God is at His strongest.

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 2:9a (NKJV)

Don’t ever believe the lie that you are to lowly for God to care about.

Whenever there is prayer, there is danger of His own immediate action. He is cynically indifferent to the dignity of His position, and ours, as pure spirits, and to human animals on their knees. He pours out self-knowledge in a quite shameless fashion.

senior devil, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis.

If God is not ashamed to bend down to listen to us, we should never be ashamed to cry out to Him at our lowest. He hears and answers our prayers.

Daily Bible reading: Psalm 116-118, 1 Corinthians 2

The Lowest Place

/ EllieJ / Leave a comment

My Connect Group recently finished a three-month-long series on Submission and Authority. Three months is a long time! Just ask those in my group. Why that long? I’ve noticed, especially on the West Coast, that there is a massive gap in Christian education when it comes to the topic. I was raised to respect and obey the authority of the office of the pastor, but most people I’ve met since coming west find the concept foreign.

As a part of our lessons, we not only covered submission and authority, but honour and humility. Once we determined that humility and humiliation were not the same thing, we discussed what it looked like to be humble.

But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Luke 14:10-11 (ESV)

In a culture that is overwhelmingly focused on self, Jesus’ words seem counter-intuitive. Bring yourself down low so that you can be raised up. The world would have us place ourselves in the highest possible position, but what does that really get us other than the possibility of fifteen minutes of fame?

Be confident in who you are in Christ and who He has made you to be. Be confident in His promises for you. When you know who you are and what you’ve been promised, taking the low place will not be a chore nor will it seem too far below you. Because in lowering yourself, you’ve raised someone else up. Not only have you displayed humility, but you’ve honoured others and earned their respect.

The lowest place is a much better place to be.

Daily Bible reading: 1 Samuel 13-14; Luke 14:1-24