Monday April 27, 2020

Your Daily Dose of Inspiration:

Luke 14:7-11 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, (8) “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, (9) and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. (10) 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 table with you. (11) For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

How many of you would like to be exalted? I think everyone wants to be in some fashion. Whether it is advancement in our job, reward for good works, or just recognition for our labor, everyone would like to be exalted. To be exalted means to be praised highly, or to be raised to a higher level. I certainly would like to be raised to a higher level and to be praised by God is reward enough for countless lives of sacrifice. But how do we reach this exaltation? How much work does someone have to put in to get exalted by God? There I think is where a lot of us get it wrong in our thinking. It is good to desire exaltation; we should want to be raised to a higher level and indeed God is moving us from glory to glory. But we get this idea that we need to push and work and remind God that we ought to be promoted. We treat God like our boss at work, as if anything we do can oblige God to do something for us. You can never say or do enough good things to make God owe you. He will exalt you according to His right purpose and time.

Some people want it so much, however, that they don’t wait on God and simply try to exalt themselves. They hold that phrase, “God helps those who help themselves” as scripture (which it is not). They prayed for that promotion, but instead of waiting on God to bring it about they go and pressure their boss. They prayed that God would open the doors for them to start their own business, but instead of waiting for Him, they go ahead and start without Him. They want some recognition for their hard work, but rather than allowing God to exalt them, they begin to look for people to praise them. We do all kinds of things to bring exaltation to ourselves, but that is not what will bring God’s exaltation to our lives. It is humility which will set us in position to be exalted by God. Humility, and submission to His will and purpose.

-Jared Freeman, “Humility & Exaltation”