The Path to Humility

As I look back over the course of my life, there is one convicting theme that really stands out to me. I can read about the importance of humility over and over in scripture, yet I find myself blind to the way of attaining it. I believe it has been a life-long process for me, and will continue to be a long hard journey to become a humble man in the sight of God. I desire humility more and more as I learn how to align the passions of my heart with the Lord's passions, as I see them through scripture.
As I foolishly put other desires ahead of the Lord, he snatches them away from me, and I am grateful for that. Being recruited by a D-II school for basketball, only to be benched by my coach my senior year, was one of the toughest things I have ever gone through. After all the work I put into basketball, that dream came up empty. It absolutely crushed me, but it brought me to a point of humility before the Lord. Today, I thank him for that. I learned many things from that experience, but the most important I think was to desire Him above all else.
Like most of us I never learned my lesson and made many more mistakes stemming from my pride in myself, and my selfish desires. Over and over again, the Lord breaks me, and gently reminds me that I only need Him. Every time He breaks me, I become more and more dependent on Him. I realize that I am not the most important thing on earth, my desires are not above another's needs. I realize that I am not self-sufficient, self-righteous, self-sustaining, I need Jesus. Away from Him I am nothing.
He is my Source. He is my Strength. He is my Protector. He is my Father. He is my Bread. He is my Water. He is my Righteousness. He is my Sustainer. He is my Love. He is my Joy. He is my Everything.
As I pray and listen to Him, I feel his reminder that the path to humility starts on my knees every morning. When I wake up and center myself in Him, lay down my pride and surrender to Him, everything is so much easier. When I let Him fill me up, I am full. When I let him love me, I am no longer lonely. When I rest in Him, I am renewed.
Lord, continue to lead me to brokeness before You, that nothing will come in the way of You. I pray that I will desire You above all else. I surrender my wants, my desires and submit them to you. Humble me Lord. Remind me that the path to humility starts on my knees.

The Lord's Passion

I want to be passionate. I believe that we all feel that burning desire inside of us to be passionate about something. I believe that we were created as passionate beings, as we are created in the image of our passionate Creator. So not only do I want to be passionate, but I want to make sure that I am passionate for what God is passionate for.
Reading Isaiah 1 with the question, "What is God passionate for?", is very interesting. I came away with a few things. One is for His children to listen and obey Him. Another is for us to stop doing evil. However, the two that I really want to focus on, is that the Lord is passionate that we "seek justice, and correct oppression." How? "bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow's cause." As I move through the passage, I find that the Lord uses those last two things as a measuring stick for judging those that are doing evil. The Lord could have illustrated any two things for justice and oppression, but He chose to speak of fatherless children and widows, and I think we can relate that to all disadvantaged and helpless people, through His prophet Isaiah. We see this occur many more times in scripture, I believe that this indicates that He is passionate about them.
This gives me confidence that I am passionate about ministering to fatherless and at-risk youth because of a God-given passion.
Lord make me more passionate for the salvation and ultimate justice for these kids. Make me more passionate about you, give me your passion.

He is our Strong Tower, our Refuge

As I prepare to leave all my conveniences, my comforts, my close friends, and my family, the Lord has brought me back to Psalm 61 over and over.

1 Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; 2 from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, 3 for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. 4 Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah

5 For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. 6 Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations! 7 May he be enthroned forever before God; appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him! 8 So will I ever sing praises to your name, as I perform my vows day after day.

Recently, I have felt so attacked, spiritually. I have felt attacked, emotionally. I have felt attacked mentally. Not by flesh and blood, but by principalities as Paul talks about in Ephesians 6. Each time,I am learning, I must go back to the truth, The Word, and take a hold of the fact that I must dwell in the Lord's presence. He is my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. In Him alone, is there peace; in Him alone is there joy.

I know that these months leading up to my departure for Brazil, I will continue to be attacked. The evil one does not want me to go, so I will get his best shot. I must dwell under the shelter of the Lord's wings, and take up the armor of the Lord. This is all the more preparation for the intense battle I will face when I get to Brazil.

I know that it will be hard for me to leave my family, my friends, and everything that is familiar to me, including my language. So, I know I will have to be on high alert, and be meditating on scripture, as I fight back.

Will you pray for me? That I will continue to trust in the Lord to be my strength, my shelter, and my strong tower. Lord be my refuge.