God's Quickening Spirit

The previous blog ended with the conclusion that humility overcomes the pride of a too high regard for one's self.

But from where does humility come?

I’ve found that humility, if it is something I attempt to instill in myself, is not really humility. The reason being because I will want it to be noticed. I will want it to be affirmed. At minimum, I will give myself credit for being humble and in that, I will have a very high regard for myself, which is pride. I will be exhibiting what 2 Timothy 3:5 describes as a form of godliness that denies God’s power.

Which brings us back to where we started: having a very high regard for ourselves because we’re so humble—more humble, even, than anyone else!

“Thus says the LORD,

‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind

And makes flesh his strength,

And whose heart turns away from the LORD.’” Jeremiah 17:5

Very rarely is anything gained by self-implementation. And, I would argue, anything self-imposed cannot be consistently maintained over time.

That's because, when the going gets tough, or doesn’t meet our expectations, or becomes boring or tedious, or we realize how many hours we must dedicate to actually honing a talent or vocation, we fade in our pursuit. And should we somehow manage to succeed on sheer willpower or competitiveness, we are often never satisfied.

So how then do we obtain humility?

 It is the work of the Spirit of God.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD

And whose trust is the LORD.

‘For he will be like a tree planted by the water,

That extends its roots by a stream

And will not fear when the heat comes;

But its leaves will be green,

And it will not be anxious in a year of drought

Nor cease to yield fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

God works through His process of quickening:

Dictionary.com defines quickening as

“to begin to manifest signs of life”

to “stir up, rouse, stimulate”

“to revive, restore life to”

“to become alive; receive life”

“to become more active; sensitive”

Scripture explains it this way:

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” John 6:63

“...even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.” Romans 4:17b

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11

God can make us alive to humility: to desire it and, over time, not even be conscious of it in ourselves.

The benefit of His humility, His way, is that we don’t become prideful in it. We are obeying a command of His to be humble: it is not something we would have willingly opted for on our own. The self fights it:

“For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit...” Galatians 5:17a

For those who have heeded His quickening unto salvation in Christ, it often can take years to even begin to understand God’s humility.

But when God is the purveyor and curator of humility through His Spirit in us, and we walk by that Spirit, then we will "not carry out the desire of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

But we must respond to God’s quickening when it happens. 

This is where the rubber hits the road when it comes to taking any new direction. God’s quickening comes to us all. But what do we do with His quickening? Perhaps His quickening in us would benefit from the same principles laid out in the February 17 post: Listen, hear, respond. Do not let ego harden us against God’s call to us.

“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.”  Hebrews 3:12

But when we cross Christ's threshold into His light, we are, finally, able to leave the darkness of pride behind.

 “‘THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT,

AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH,

UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.’

From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 4:16-17

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humbe in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

People are weary, heavy-laden and burdened, often because of their pride which demands things the world, and even their own egos, cannot give them: affirmation, a sense of importance, identity, contentment, joy and peace.

Jesus says He can take our yoke and burden in exchange for His.

I mean, listen, if we are going to go around tired and burdened in life, doesn’t it seem better to go with the lighter version?

The way of Jesus is indeed lighter because “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

God’s unequivocal, non-negotiable call is to humility in the equipping and empowering of Christ. It is the humility that first broke us when we allowed Christ’s salvation to walk us through the door to new life in Him. It is the humility He desires to grow in us through prayer and the reading and applying of His Word.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16

With all of this going for us, why would we continue to lust after our own high regard, which does nothing for us and even sets us back?

Instead,

“And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain—for he says, 

‘AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU,

AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.’

Behold, now is ‘THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,’ behold now is ‘THE DAY OF SALVATION’—giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited,” 2 Corinthians 6:1-3

copyright Barb Harwood

Step Away From the Ego

Yesterday I wrote about one’s having a too high of a regard for one's self. 

One might contend that, however off-putting this trait, it is not a sin. Let’s go to Scripture to test that theory:

“For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” Romans 12:3 (I encourage the reading of the entire chapter).

The Bible is our personal accountability in which we find the expectations and warnings of God on how we are to live and how we are not to live; how we are to be and not to be; in short, how we are to abide in Christ at all times.

Certainly nobody pulls this off perfectly. But in order to be able to even begin, we must go to the beginning, Jesus Christ and His Word. And the more we find ourselves there, the less we will live in, and from, in here.

Okay, so we know we ought not to have a high self-regard. But what actually is it and what is its cause? 

In yesterday’s post I gave examples of how it might manifest in daily life.

Today, we’ll get into the backstory of how and why it occurs.

The website, GotQuestions.org provides some excellent insight when it ties a high self-regard to the ego:

"Egotism is an excessive focus or occupation with oneself driven by an inflated sense of self-importance. Egoism is a preoccupation with oneself yet may be without the inflated self-importance. Egoism also refers to the belief that self-interest is the motivation for and/or the valid end of all action. The human tendency toward being an egotist/egoist is no surprise from a biblical perspective. It is also something the Bible speaks against, and God soundly dealt with egotists such as King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4).

At the root of egotism is self. Egotism is ultimately driven by pride and thinking oneself worthy of the utmost attention or capable of complete self-sufficiency. At times, an egoist may be motivated by past hurt. Betrayal, abuse, or abandonment may cause a person to believe he must always look out for himself—because no one else will. Rather than trust others, someone who has been hurt may isolate herself and believe she can only trust herself. Though not pride as we would generally conceive of it, this is still an unbiblical stance that raises self to the status of a god.

Philippians 2:1–11 is one passage that speaks to egotism. Verses 3–4 say, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” We are to look to the interests of others based on the example of Jesus Christ, who, though He is God, humbled Himself to live a human life and die a humiliating death in our stead. In both the Old and New Testaments, followers of God are called to humility; we are not to have an over-inflated sense of self-importance. Humility is not self-debasement or a lack of confidence. Being humble does not mean that we neglect our own needs or uphold no boundaries. Rather, humility is having an accurate estimation of oneself wherein we think of ourselves less often. We are not preoccupied with ourselves; rather, we see and care about the needs of others. We are willing to sacrifice our own preferences for the benefit of others.

Christians understand that serving self is not the highest goal." GotQuestions.org

Some examples of how to put this kind of humility into practice in day-to-day interactions could be:

Listen and do not interrupt

Ever notice the tendency for one person in a conversation to begin speaking before the other person has completely stopped talking?

Listening is not an end in itself

We also must hear what is said. And to hear what is said, we have to want to hear what is said. And to want to hear what is said, we have to value the speaker. We have to respect the speaker whether we respect what they are saying or not.

Respond

Then we must respond, what? Not to our self, but to the other person!

When someone has finished talking, what often happens is that we react from a position and mindset of self. So if the person just divulged a plan for how to approach a project at work, we jump in and, ignoring their plan altogether, launch into our plan.

Or, because we have our own plan waiting in the wings, we verbally negate their plan in lieu of ours. 

Instead, it is better to take time to play back what was said, highlight the potential positives and negatives of the plan, and then weave some ideas we may have into that. We work with the other person in cooperation, versus commandeering the project.

Listening, hearing and responding are the first steps in subordinating the ego to the leadership of a humble spirit. These three actions can be applied in every relationship, and are just as valuable with children as with adults.

Dismantling the ego as defined above will test our patience and our ability to let go of a critical spirit. It will pain us to share our importance with others. It will feel as though we are being diminished. But we are not. 

Our importance, along with other people’s importance, is actually enhanced (and even that can sometimes be difficult to swallow, because it is humanly counterintuitive: we have been trained to be the important one, from self-esteem movements, to Facebook bragging rights, to one-upping with material possessions).

The world sends a mixed message: “Let’s all be kind to and tolerant of one another” but “you and your individual rights are the most important in the world.”

Humility can overcome these rather intimidating barriers. But how?

More on that in a future post...

Copyright Barb Harwood

The Immobilizing Effect of Having Too High of a Regard for Oneself

A high regard for one’s self.

It is what causes us to think we are too good for:

Our job

Society

Our families

Having children

Being a parent and raising children

Being a wife

Being a husband

The normal and necessary drudgeries and chores of daily living.

Jesus has something to say about this:

“And he also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt. ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.’” Luke 18:9-14

See, when we have such a high regard for our self, we tend to think we are special in a way that others are not; that we have sensitivities and qualities which others do not possess.

We feel that we are more concerned about the world than others; that we alone have the answers to the world’s problems.

We believe ourselves to be creative and in possession of a vision that nobody (or only a very few), likeminded souls possess, and if it weren’t for inane social constructs or other’s incompetence, we’d flourish and reach our full potential.

In other words, if it weren’t for “the man” (that ill-defined obstructer to our no-brainer solutions) we’d implement—efficiently and successfully (with an implied sense of single-handedness)—all of our ideas.

What tends to occur as we languish within this very high regard for our self—now with a self-formulated enemy called “the man,”—is that we do nothing. We impact no one. We become immobilized.

But we don’t hold ourselves accountable for that lack of action because self-constructed victimhood has deluded itself that not “selling out”—that remaining disengaged from “the man”—is doing something. In this way immobilization is enabled and encouraged.

But what high-regarders often miss is that we are not escaping “the man” after all.

For example, those who cannot hold down a job due to their inability to co-exist within an office or employment paradigm not of their own making, will ironically become reliant on, who?—“the man” in the form of parents, friends or the government.

See, as far as I can tell, this nefarious bogeyman people call “the man” is nothing more than the guy who has his act together enough to carry the world when the disenfranchised check out—or when it serves the disenfranchised’s convenience.

As a case in point, those wanting to “stick it to the man” fail to see that they serve “the man” every time they fill their automobile tank with gas, use their iPhone, drive their corporately produced car, shop for groceries or employ the teachers of a child’s daycare.

Which brings us, I believe, to the real point: We think we are too good for those in the world who don’t agree with or exemplify our lifestyle or ideology, not realizing that, in fact, we are mutually beneficial to one another.

In fact, we ourselves, in many ways, are “the man,” not only through our eventual and ultimate reliance upon him, but also in terms of someone else wanting to stick it to us: because there will always be someone who disagrees with our standards and idealism.

We are, at any given moment, “the man” in someone else’s eyes.

It’s the old adage of “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

One cannot be disaffected by the world and yet desire or rely upon the benefits of those we claim to disdain. And one can’t prevent one’s self from being “the man” which others perceive to be getting in their way.

It’s a beautiful oxymoron that proves the joke is on all of us.

So, to illustrate:

One’s disdain of government comes up against another person’s enjoyment of and appreciation for maintained sidewalks, bicycling lanes, a place to send their child to school, social security in the later years and worker’s disability compensation. 

One’s all-out lamenting of big corporations comes up against those who like nothing more than to see the emerging big corporation of, say, Elon Musk’s Tesla or the success of a conglomerate such as Whole Foods, Apple or Volkswagen.

One’s abhorrence of being an at-home mom (one of those nasty "social constructs" that must be obliterated)—and her general stance that staying home and raising children is “settling” and “below” the liberalizing of women—comes up against the fact that this very mom relies upon other women to raise her children for her while she works outside of the home. One does wonder if this same woman would find it “beneath” a man to raise those children? And it comes up against the women who find the “social construct” of staying home and raising children not only satisfying, but also exceedingly beneficial to the children and family.

So what do we make of all of this?

Simply, that to think we have a righteousness and rare sixth sense of virtue, intelligence or artistic disposition that others do not possess is the height of narcissism.

This sense of individuality, of being “above” the “normal” machinations of society, excludes us from consistent, long-term interaction with a community comprised of a variety of personalities and value systems.

We have worked hard to fool ourselves into believing that it’s society’s fault for rejecting our greatness and aptitude. But society hasn’t rejected us at all.  We have rejected society because it doesn’t meet our standards or operate within our idealism; we have rejected it because we’ve deemed it to be below us. We, our lifestyle choices and worldview, are always better. Our affirmation is what counts. We are obliged to affirm no one (especially those who have a vastly differentiated experience than ours!)

So much for co-existance and tolerance!

The problem with idealistic thinking is that it is either/or thinking: there’s no place for the real world, which isn’t as cut and dried as we’ve made it and as we’ve waxed philosophically about from a distance.

In short, the end result is that, since others cannot accept me “the way that I am,” and the world cannot offer me “the world as it should be,” then I will not accept others and the world either.

The high-regarder withdraws to nurse the conviction that the world and everyone in it is an incompetent cog in a pathetic wheel.

We sit back and do nothing because nothing is where our high regard for ourselves can live unchallenged and undisturbed. We take our ball and go home.

More on the potential antidote to this state of being in the coming days.

Copyright Barb Harwood