'... The idolatrous and corrupt in heart must repent and turn to God. Those who are proud and self-righteous must abase self and become penitent and meek and lowly in heart.'
{5T 249.2} EGW Testimonies for the Church.
Meek and lowly in today's world, at least here in the United States, means to be introverted and not something to be desired.
The ideal we seem to strive for is confidence. We want people who are confident yet aren't cocky, or subservient. We want people confident in THEMSELVES, yet we are supposed to be confident in CHRIST.
1Jn_2:28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
We have to ABIDE in HIM.
We must be meek and lowly in heart concerning ourselves but confident in CHRIST.
It's not contradictory, it's emptying self and being filled with Christ. To empty self is to let go of self to allow ourselves to realize that the flesh in us is no good, we have NO righteousness of our own and if we don't realize this we are in eternal trouble.
Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
ALL… not a lot, not a whole bunch, not some, not a few, not a couple, but ALL our righteousnessess are as FILTHY RAGS. How many of our righteousnesses do we possess? NONE! The problem comes when we believe we have our OWN righteousness! We have NO RIGHTEOUSNESS of our own! We can pat ourselves on the back night and day for the good deeds we may do, or the sins we may overcome, but that will not make them or us righteous. We have NO righteousness of our own and that's where we get so darn confused. We want to call our good acts a part of our righteousness. We want to add to some unseen account the things we do right. We want our overcoming sins to be tallied up on some account board so that it can be accounted to us for righteousness.
Gal 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
FAITH, BELIEVING IN GOD, is the only righteousness we can have. God is the righteousness! Christ is our righteousness.
'... The idolatrous and corrupt in heart must repent and turn to God. Those who are proud and self-righteous must abase self and become penitent and meek and lowly in heart.'
We must abase self!
'a·base əˈbās/ verb 1. behave in a way so as to belittle or degrade (someone).'
Do you see what I mean? We don't want to ever hear the words 'belittle' or 'degrade'. Automatically those words mean bad things to us and they should because we should never belittle or degrade anyone and there is it… anyone… not even ourselves. We have a whole psychological realm that tells us not to belittle or degrade ourselves, that is it wrong. Yet anyone who is PROUD and SELF-RIGHTEOUS has to abase themselves! If you have no problem with pride or self-righteousness then don't think about this, but do think about THIS- sometimes in the mere thought of our being pride-less is prideful, yes?
We have to understand fully that we are only worth anything at all in CHRIST, because HE DEEMS US WORTHY! In Him we are all things! Abasing and degrading ourselves mean comprehending that fact, that we are nothing and He is everything.
We must become penitent.
We must become meek.
We must become lowly in heart.
We must have Him in US, our SAVIOR in US.
Please, Savior, please be in US. Empty US, and FILL US with YOU! Please! By YOUR GRACE!
{5T 249.2} EGW Testimonies for the Church.
Meek and lowly in today's world, at least here in the United States, means to be introverted and not something to be desired.
The ideal we seem to strive for is confidence. We want people who are confident yet aren't cocky, or subservient. We want people confident in THEMSELVES, yet we are supposed to be confident in CHRIST.
1Jn_2:28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
We have to ABIDE in HIM.
We must be meek and lowly in heart concerning ourselves but confident in CHRIST.
It's not contradictory, it's emptying self and being filled with Christ. To empty self is to let go of self to allow ourselves to realize that the flesh in us is no good, we have NO righteousness of our own and if we don't realize this we are in eternal trouble.
Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
ALL… not a lot, not a whole bunch, not some, not a few, not a couple, but ALL our righteousnessess are as FILTHY RAGS. How many of our righteousnesses do we possess? NONE! The problem comes when we believe we have our OWN righteousness! We have NO RIGHTEOUSNESS of our own! We can pat ourselves on the back night and day for the good deeds we may do, or the sins we may overcome, but that will not make them or us righteous. We have NO righteousness of our own and that's where we get so darn confused. We want to call our good acts a part of our righteousness. We want to add to some unseen account the things we do right. We want our overcoming sins to be tallied up on some account board so that it can be accounted to us for righteousness.
Gal 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
FAITH, BELIEVING IN GOD, is the only righteousness we can have. God is the righteousness! Christ is our righteousness.
'... The idolatrous and corrupt in heart must repent and turn to God. Those who are proud and self-righteous must abase self and become penitent and meek and lowly in heart.'
We must abase self!
'a·base əˈbās/ verb 1. behave in a way so as to belittle or degrade (someone).'
Do you see what I mean? We don't want to ever hear the words 'belittle' or 'degrade'. Automatically those words mean bad things to us and they should because we should never belittle or degrade anyone and there is it… anyone… not even ourselves. We have a whole psychological realm that tells us not to belittle or degrade ourselves, that is it wrong. Yet anyone who is PROUD and SELF-RIGHTEOUS has to abase themselves! If you have no problem with pride or self-righteousness then don't think about this, but do think about THIS- sometimes in the mere thought of our being pride-less is prideful, yes?
We have to understand fully that we are only worth anything at all in CHRIST, because HE DEEMS US WORTHY! In Him we are all things! Abasing and degrading ourselves mean comprehending that fact, that we are nothing and He is everything.
We must become penitent.
We must become meek.
We must become lowly in heart.
We must have Him in US, our SAVIOR in US.
Please, Savior, please be in US. Empty US, and FILL US with YOU! Please! By YOUR GRACE!