Humble Ourselves and Serve

While on another hiking adventure, God directed my eyes to a standing tree with bark sporadically missing from the trunk. It looked like it had been through several years of tough times - drought, rain, lightening strikes. It appeared to be in a slow, dying state, and things were going from bad to worse. Over time, the remaining bark will fall off, the tree will rot from the inside out, and it will fall as if totally defeated. Will anyone ever know?

A little later I saw 3 trees positioned fairly close to each other and fallen among them was a very long, dead, broken tree, completely stripped of its bark. God told me that this was one of his broken children who had humbled himself at the feet of the Trinity - God, the Father; Jesus Christ, the Son; and the Holy Spirit (God and Jesus become one). It moved me so to see this broken person who had suffered unknown trials - abuses, addictions, devastating conditions - laying there stripped of all of his beauty and dignity. But it moved me even more to see that this person was broken to the point of having nothing left to conquer the loneliness, the emptiness, the sadness, the feeling of “the bottom of the barrel”. There was nothing - no thing - left to fill the hole of emptiness.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

This person came to the point of humbling himself, which in James 4:10 comes from the Hebrew word tapeinoo meaning to bring low, to cast down, lowly. In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “humble” means to “lower in dignity or importance”. He laid himself prostrate on the ground - having been subdued completely - and begging for help; searching for something to fill that hole of emptiness. Scripture then says that this person who humbled himself will be lifted up. “Lift up” in the Greek is hupsoo meaning to elevate or exalt (to raise in rank, power, or character). God will lift up every person who humbles himself before Him!

This person laid everything out in front of Christ because he knew there had to be a better way. He tried everything else to no avail so why not try Jesus?

YES, there is a better way in Christ! He died for our salvation; defeated sin and death; returned to his original spirit form, and moved to dwell in us as the Holy Spirit.

Philippians 2:5-11:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Hallelujah!

Thanks for stopping by,

Rachel