What does it mean to follow Jesus? It means to imitate His example, as much as you can. His perfect example of love and humility. He lowered Himself so that others could be exalted.
Can you imagine that? He lowered Himself, to become a man, allowed His enemies to torture and kill Him, and even through that He asked forgiveness on their behalf while He laid dying, mocked, and in pain. Even while they gambled for His clothes, He loved them still.
God does not expect us to do anything that He has not experienced Himself, and showed us how to do it. Humility IS love. This is a concept that is a little complicated.
But, stay with me here because it's important. When you humble yourself before another person, you are loving that person enough to put them before you.
When you ask Jesus to come into your life and repent from your sins, you are humbling yourself before Him. You are recognizing that He is more important and more powerful then you, and that you are an imperfect sinner. The moment that you understand and embrace that, you have become a Christian and God Himself lifts you up when you bow down before Him and humble yourself.
A lot of people think that's the goal, to become a christian, but it's not, that is only the starting point, the beginning. From there, we are to grow and mature, putting on a christ like personality ourselves. We are to become a new person inside our hearts and minds and put on the humility and love of Jesus. He showed us how, He sent the perfect example for us to follow.
When you humble yourself and show love to another person, you are not only showing them love, not only showing God love, and you are also showing yourself love because you are putting in motion your love for God. "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
In the world, a humble person is often looked upon as weak, and a big loud tough person is looked upon as strong. This is actually the opposite of the truth. A humble person is strong in self restraint, self assured, and does not need to put himself above another person to make himself feel important. He already knows he's important, he's sure of himself, and he has mastered his own ego and emotions. The tough person is actually very weak minded and has to use fear and bully people into respecting him because he has nothing else to offer, nothing of value at all and he knows it. The tough person is also very insecure because deep down inside he knows that he's small and insignificant, and he yells the loudest and knocks others down to "appear" to be strong.
This verse came to my mind this morning ""Faith without works is dead". Faith, (the belief in something), without works, (putting that belief into motion), is dead.
What does that mean exactly? To me, it means that if you say that you love God, but you do not do your best to imitate Him in your daily life, then your faith is dead and worthless.
Ok, so how do you imitate Him? By showing love and humility, because that's what He focused on during His time here with us.
Picture 4 people. Two are focused on Jesus's example of showing love and humility. The other two are self serving.The two that are focused on humility and love will constantly build eachother up naturally, by each one putting the others needs ahead of their own. This will built both up together, equally, by eachother.
But the 2 that are only focused on self serving, will struggle with eachother for power, control, and trying to be better, and have more, then the other one.
Picture a world with only self serving people, and what it would be like. Then picture a world with only humble loving people and what that would be like.
See the big picture? It's a domino effect, and it starts with you.
God gave us a book, but He didn't just leave it at that, He came here to show us how. No, it's not easy! Nobody said it would be, in fact Jesus Himself told us how hard it would be to overcome these issues of pride and selfishness because those traits are hard to get rid of when you live in a world where you feel you have to fight to survive and yell to be heard.
But that's what sets us apart. We are not supposed to be like the world, we are supposed to stand apart, be different, clothed in modesty, humility, love, compassion and grace. Yea....yea....yea....everybody knows that, right? That's basic stuff, we have all heard it before. So you've heard it, but do you FEEL it? Do you act upon it and put it into action?
When you're cut off in traffic, do you slam on your horn and yell at the person in front? When you're wronged, do you strike back? If somebody slaps you, do you slap back? If somebody does not forgive you, do you still forgive him? If somebody insults you, do you hang onto that offense? If somebody has made a mistake, are you quick to point it out? Do you keep score?
If you have not answered yes to any of those questions, you're a liar!
We all do these things, myself included. But being a Christian, a follower of Jesus, requires us to constantly work at overcoming these imperfections.
Can you imagine that? He lowered Himself, to become a man, allowed His enemies to torture and kill Him, and even through that He asked forgiveness on their behalf while He laid dying, mocked, and in pain. Even while they gambled for His clothes, He loved them still.
God does not expect us to do anything that He has not experienced Himself, and showed us how to do it. Humility IS love. This is a concept that is a little complicated.
But, stay with me here because it's important. When you humble yourself before another person, you are loving that person enough to put them before you.
When you ask Jesus to come into your life and repent from your sins, you are humbling yourself before Him. You are recognizing that He is more important and more powerful then you, and that you are an imperfect sinner. The moment that you understand and embrace that, you have become a Christian and God Himself lifts you up when you bow down before Him and humble yourself.
A lot of people think that's the goal, to become a christian, but it's not, that is only the starting point, the beginning. From there, we are to grow and mature, putting on a christ like personality ourselves. We are to become a new person inside our hearts and minds and put on the humility and love of Jesus. He showed us how, He sent the perfect example for us to follow.
When you humble yourself and show love to another person, you are not only showing them love, not only showing God love, and you are also showing yourself love because you are putting in motion your love for God. "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
In the world, a humble person is often looked upon as weak, and a big loud tough person is looked upon as strong. This is actually the opposite of the truth. A humble person is strong in self restraint, self assured, and does not need to put himself above another person to make himself feel important. He already knows he's important, he's sure of himself, and he has mastered his own ego and emotions. The tough person is actually very weak minded and has to use fear and bully people into respecting him because he has nothing else to offer, nothing of value at all and he knows it. The tough person is also very insecure because deep down inside he knows that he's small and insignificant, and he yells the loudest and knocks others down to "appear" to be strong.
This verse came to my mind this morning ""Faith without works is dead". Faith, (the belief in something), without works, (putting that belief into motion), is dead.
What does that mean exactly? To me, it means that if you say that you love God, but you do not do your best to imitate Him in your daily life, then your faith is dead and worthless.
Ok, so how do you imitate Him? By showing love and humility, because that's what He focused on during His time here with us.
Picture 4 people. Two are focused on Jesus's example of showing love and humility. The other two are self serving.The two that are focused on humility and love will constantly build eachother up naturally, by each one putting the others needs ahead of their own. This will built both up together, equally, by eachother.
But the 2 that are only focused on self serving, will struggle with eachother for power, control, and trying to be better, and have more, then the other one.
Picture a world with only self serving people, and what it would be like. Then picture a world with only humble loving people and what that would be like.
See the big picture? It's a domino effect, and it starts with you.
God gave us a book, but He didn't just leave it at that, He came here to show us how. No, it's not easy! Nobody said it would be, in fact Jesus Himself told us how hard it would be to overcome these issues of pride and selfishness because those traits are hard to get rid of when you live in a world where you feel you have to fight to survive and yell to be heard.
But that's what sets us apart. We are not supposed to be like the world, we are supposed to stand apart, be different, clothed in modesty, humility, love, compassion and grace. Yea....yea....yea....everybody knows that, right? That's basic stuff, we have all heard it before. So you've heard it, but do you FEEL it? Do you act upon it and put it into action?
When you're cut off in traffic, do you slam on your horn and yell at the person in front? When you're wronged, do you strike back? If somebody slaps you, do you slap back? If somebody does not forgive you, do you still forgive him? If somebody insults you, do you hang onto that offense? If somebody has made a mistake, are you quick to point it out? Do you keep score?
If you have not answered yes to any of those questions, you're a liar!
We all do these things, myself included. But being a Christian, a follower of Jesus, requires us to constantly work at overcoming these imperfections.
being Teacher's pet.....pet alligator, you mean!!!!!
