"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." 1 Peter 5:6-7 (KJV)
We have to lay down our pride, and stop exalting ourselves. When we exalt ourselves, then God will be forced to humble us... But if we're humble, God Himself will exalt us. I don't like being humbled by the Lord, because sometimes it hurts. It can be more humiliating than a pie to the face or like something I did when I was a teenager (I was leaning in my chair while eating a bowl of cereal, and I fell over and got it all over my head.) A friend saw it, and I didn't get to forget that for a very long time, haha. That's not the most humiliating thing that's happened to me, but it'll due. The point is, I'd rather have the Lord exalt me (lift me up,) than humble me. The truth is the Lord will exalt me much better than I can exalt myself. And of course, He can humble me much more than I can humble myself which is why I don't want Him to do it... So, I have to choose to humble myself. The question of the day: What was one of your most humiliating moments?
A big part of being humble is seeking the Lord in all things, even if they are things we think we can handle ourselves. I remember my Aunt Bernice, bless her heart... Whenever the lights went out (power shortage,) which seemed to happen a lot: She would get on her knees and pray. My uncle Thomas would get up and go fix the breaker and get the lights back on. We used to kind of laugh that she would get on her knees and pray over such a small thing, that she probably knew my uncle would fix. But who's to say that if she wouldn't of prayed that he would've been able to fix it? Maybe it wasn't such a small thing, and even if it were she was still doing the right thing. She was seeking the Lord's power. It's easy to laugh when you don't understand, but I do recognize the importance of prayer in all things now. I understand it, it's not always about whether or not we can handle it ourselves. It's about trusting and seeking the Lord. This understanding is something I can be thankful for in our "30 Days of Thanksgiving." If you haven't checked that out, then please do. You won't be sorry you did!
Now, here's something that's kind of off subject. I feel like sharing it. I was on another forum several weeks back, and I posted one of my devotions there. A person came in and knocked my prayer, where I thank the Lord for all things. They said I shouldn't thank God for the bad things, because He doesn't bring those things like cancer, etc. Well, I thank God for the good and the bad, because anybody can thank God for the good things. But when you thank Him for the bad things too, then you truly have an understanding that the bad things in your life God will turn to good and they will make you stronger. So, maybe nothing good happened to you today, but know this: God will turn the bad in your life to good (Read Romans 8:28,) and be thankful for all the bad things that happened to you today as well.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins as we forgive all those who've sinned against us. Help us to trust in you with every aspect of our life, whether it be big or small. Help us to cast our cares on you, and to be humble before your throne of mercy. In Jesus name. A-men!
