Pride is a distorted view of self. This causes problems in all of our relationships. We will examine pride in our relationship with the Lord, with others, and with self.

Relationship with the Lord

When Adam and Eve sinned, instead of repenting from their sin, Eve blamed the serpent, and Adam blamed God by saying, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12

Generally, one who is proud has a tendency on concentrating on God’s love and mercy and how special they are to the Lord. They don’t like to focus on God’s commands or discipline. There is a tendency to think that because they are special to God, they can make a lot of mistakes, overstep God’s boundaries, thinking God will be gracious to them without holding them accountable.

In Relationship to others

Proud people like to think they deserve more and deserve favor. They can have high expectations of others but low expectations of themselves. They can justify their bad behavior because it is usually someone else’s fault, or their part was very small compared to the other person.

There are two different sides to pride, “the victim” and “the fighter”. The victim says, “I don’t deserve this mistreatment.”, or “Why is this happening to me again?”  The other side of pride is the militaristic, judgmental, person who can quickly judge others based on their point of view, causing strife and unnecessary division. They would say something like, “That’s their fault. They sinned and they are responsible for it. I don’t need to be around people like that.”, or “How dare they do this to me?” They don’t mind cutting off relationships in the name of “truth” or “justice”.

Pride causes huge blind spots. We are so focused on what we see that we miss seeing the whole picture. A proud person is generally one-sided. This means they have little understanding as to how their actions impact others.  We must try to put ourselves in other people’s shoes rather than expecting others to put themselves in our shoes!! As the scripture tells us, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:39

Relationship to Self

Pride gives an inflated view of self. Proud people think, they are right, the capable ones,  and others somehow are less or unworthy. Self becomes the lens that one sees everything through. This causes  a proud person to ask questions such as:” why did they say that ?” or “why doesn’t anyone care about me?”.

The Scripture tells us, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”Philippians 2:3

That’s difficult for the proud person, who must fight this internal battle in order to overcome self and do what the Bible tells us to.

In the earlier devotional,  I discussed having the proper security in our relationship with the Lord. Here I would like to discuss some of the things we can do to overcome pride in the way we relate to others:

1. Don’t be quick to cut off relationships. As hard as it is, work on reconciliation and peace.

2. When situations arise that causes you to go to the place of being a victim or a fighter, ask yourself:

What is my part in this situation? Did I do anything to contribute to the problem? Could this have been avoided if I had dealt with some of the issues earlier on?

This is a difficult thing to do because every part of you wants to defend yourself or try to explain that you were wronged. But it is an important step because the scripture tells us, “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye?” Luke 6:41

3. Become a great listener. Once we have dealt with our part and repented, we are in a more humble position. If needed, we must confront the offense by talking to the person (Matthew 18:15). You need to make an effort to hear the other person’s point of view and not press your own point of view.

4. Work on building a bridge rather than pointing out the difference. If we are going to be the kind of people who will be known by our love towards one another, we must work on finding our common union rather than our personal differences.  Recognizing that each person is valuable and has something to offer is our responsibility.

5. Finally, we must learn to submit to one another. Don’t get too caught up in your position or others’ position. While those in authority should be respected, scripture clearly tells us that we should submit one to another.

Pride is a stronghold that we must war against. No one is immune from this. Pride will not go away casually; it will require a great resolve and courage to annihilate it!!

Pride continues to separate marriages, family, loved ones, groups of people, and even nations. As God’s people, it is incumbent upon us to show a different brand of humanity. Jesus set the highest standard of humility, and He called us to learn from Him. We can have many successes, but if we don’t have humility, it will look like a well-dressed person who smells bad!! We are called to have the aroma of Christ not just look good!!

There are different Hebrew & Greek words for “pride” in the Bible. So here is a summary of some of those definitions.

Definition of Pride: Inordinate self-esteem; the character of one who, with a swollen estimate of his own powers or merits, looks down on others and even treats them with insolence and contempt; to raise a smoke; to wrap in a mist; to blind with pride or conceit; to render foolish or stupid, empty, braggart talk.

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. James 4:7

Pride was at the root of devil’s fall. (Isaiah 14:13-15) He was choosing to exercise His will apart from the God’s will.

When we become proud, we come into agreement with the devil and his will. On the other hand, Jesus declared himself gentle and humble and he told us that we need to learn gentleness and humility from Him.(Matthew 11:28-29) That’s why the scripture tells us that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. The devil stands on one side with his pride, arrogance, and self will. Jesus is on the other side with gentleness, meekness & humility. When we respond to a situation with pride, God will oppose us because pride is against the character of God. However, when we respond with humility, God gives us grace. Jesus was humble and that’s what brings delight to the Lord when we identify with Jesus.

What are some things that open the door to pride?

1. Feeling threatened. When people are fearful, their flesh wants to go into self-preservation mode. They do whatever they can to fight the so-called enemy. People stop trusting God. They jump into the driver’s seat of their life in an attempt to impact the situation in a certain direction. They start leaning on their own understanding and what is seen with the natural eyes rather than waiting for the Lord’s instruction or strategy.

2. Being offended. The sense of being wronged and unjustly treated takes people to the place of defending themselves and their rights. The problem with defending yourself is that while you may have valid points, it puts a smokescreen to your own issues and some of the things you need to address in your life and your attitude.

3. Being insecure about who we are and what we do. If people are not firmly grounded in who God says they are, when difficult or dry seasons come, it will cause them to become proud, brag about themselves or compete with others to feel better about their insecurities. You must remember there are seasons to everything under heaven, and ask the Lord to show you the season you are in. Your best friend may be in a different season than you are. You must also ask yourself, “Have I stayed in this season for too long because I haven’t been listening to the Lord’s instruction in this season?” Bragging about oneself or competing with others is never the answer. That’s not who God is and that’s not how the lord wants his children to operate.

4. Lack of revelation of who we really are apart from Christ. Regardless of our maturity or accomplishments in His kingdom, we must remember we are nothing apart from Him. Jesus is our righteousness, truth, and life. The devil can trap people by self-condemnation on one hand, and self-exaltation on the other hand, and it can all happen in one day!!! Believers have to be very careful in bringing their thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ by making sure their thoughts are lined up with the Bible. If not, they could live a schizophrenic life. The life of stability comes from aligning our lives with the word of God and allowing His will to direct us and correct us in the journey of life.

We will continue with the subject of pride in the next devotional. In the meantime, when situations arise that makes you want to defend yourself. Stop! Ask the Lord to show you your part in the situation before pointing out the shortcomings of the other person.

^“But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” Romans 2:29

Praise of man is like a powerful and addictive medicine. Even a small amount can cause an overdose.  How do we discern the overdose on man’s praise? There are a few questions that we need to ask ourselves to evaluate our heart condition on this issue:

1. Before you agree to do any task, do you have a need to determine the visibility of the job?
2. When you do it, are you hoping that someone will appreciate it or will put a good word for you?
3. Will the quality of what you do be any different if you knew someone important will hear about it?
4. Will you be discouraged or disappointed if you didn’t get any attention or encouragement for a job well done?
5. If you do get any encouragement, does it warm your heart or does it exalt you?
6. Do you feel sad or left out when others are praised in front of you?
7. Do you find yourself behaving or speaking differently in front of someone depending on that person’s position or importance in your mind?

Any of the above could be a symptom of desiring man’s honor. If that’s the case, ask the Lord to cut off and circumcise any and every trace of that desire out of your heart. It will harm your heart towards God, and it can very easily derail you from God’s purpose for your life.

The Lord will allow us to have His honor as well as man’s honor. The Bible tells us that Jesus grew in stature and in favor with God and man. The issue is does man’s honor have first place in your life?

Paul said in Galatians 1:10b “For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”

If our aim and goal in life is to please God and not look around, to see if we have man’s honor, we will eventually have man’s honor as well. Our chief goal cannot be to have man’s honor or to see who is noticing us, because that is not pleasing to the Lord. The wrong focus will also make one lose man’s honor for you might have to compromise your integrity at some point to keep man’s honor. God tests the heart and the character and in time it will be evident what really matters to us.

One of the significant questions we must ask ourselves is, “Do I only hear the Lord within the framework of what I think is acceptable by those I deem important”? If so, we may be in trouble!

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 9: 13-14

 The first question we should ask is, “What are dead works?” Let’s look at

Romans 10:3: For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

We can’t earn God’s favor and righteousness by doing works. Jesus became our righteousness. When we believe God, we submit to His truth and the accomplished work of Jesus on the cross for us. The Lord desires for us to do good works which were purposed for us from beginning of time. However, man in his fallen state desires to do his own works which are dead works. When man is rightly related to God, he is dependent on the Lord to set the agenda for his life including the works he will do. However, when we are not rightly related to God, we use works to feel better about ourselves!!

Dead works give false security about our relationship with the Lord. Man leans on his performance and understanding to ensure he’s doing ok. It is our soulish reference point. When all else fails, and we don’t see clearly then our identity comes into question. At that point, dead works become the Adam’s leaf that hide our insecurities or our shame. Dead works give us significance. It can be the sacrifice that hides our disobedience (Look at 1Samuel 15). It becomes the narcotic that calms our anxious nerves.

Dead works are not only dead, but they are deadly!! The more you do them, the more addictive they become because they have a momentary sense of pleasure to them. What we don’t see right away is that they trap us to do more dead works. If we stop doing them fear takes over. The thought of getting forgotten and becoming insignificant come like hunger pangs ready to tempt us to give in to this soulish manna. The feelings of withdrawal become so strong that sometimes it makes you think that you are committing spiritual annihilation  if you don’t do some more dead works!!

The good news is that the above scripture tells us that the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience from dead works. What an entrapment we have when we have lived for so long with dead works!? It has seared our conscience. It has become the measure we use to determine if we are right with God. Our conscience, the very place that is supposed to discern the difference between good and evil, the place where we need to get convicted by the Holy Spirit is defiled by dead works!!

The only thing that can cleanse our conscience and renew it is submitting to the work of Jesus through His precious, cleansing blood. Jesus had no sin, he had no dead works. When we apply the blood of Jesus, a spiritual transformation occurs. It cleanses our conscience from dead works. We are no longer in bondage to it; we are no longer enslaved by it, because the blood of Jesus has opened the door to a new covenant.

The rules of engagement in the new covenant are totally different than the ones we were used to in the old covenant or in the world. Dead works are not our master! However, we need to believe and not feed them anymore. We cannot rely on our own understanding to evaluate how we are doing, but we need to rely on the Lord. Our challenge will also be that other believers may continue to do dead works, but we can’t allow that to derail us either.

We need to continue to seek God, stop striving, stop being worried about getting forgotten, and start trusting Him in faith. We need to trust that if we need to be doing something, the Lord will show us what it is. He will not be playing hide and go seek with us. He wants us to diligently seek Him, and the scripture tells us that when we seek Him we will find Him!

This is a continuation from last devotional. This devotional is a very general analysis of injustice we face and the justice of God. However, there are times when an individual or a group of people are under great danger of abuse. This message may not have what you need, so I encourage you if you are in a abusive situation, please contact your pastor or your local police.

5. Don’t let injustice affect your love for God. We have to stand in the place of humility and say “Lord if you’re not going to deal with it right away, I still trust you and love you, and I know you have the best for me. You don’t love the perpetrator more than me or have turned the other way”.

6. Love the one who has been unjust. We need to ask the Lord to help us love this person, to forgive them and leave the consequences in His hands. This doesn’t make their behavior ok, but it releases us from carrying the burden and the yoke of their injustice.

7. Guard your heart. Injustice can create great offense in our hearts. This closes our hearts towards people. It can cause distrust, suspicion, and even make us cynical. It can make us shut down. This is another battle that has to be fought. We need to use wisdom and watch that our hearts don’t become hardened by offense and others’ sin. The scripture tells us, “for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God”. James 1:20 When we get angry and frustrated, we are out of line and out of God’s will and authority to deal with the situation.

8. Choose God over injustice. We have to determine in our hearts that if I have to choose between the Lord and fighting injustice in a situation, I will choose God. I will surrender my rights to defend myself or fight for myself, and I will allow the Lord to vindicate me. If injustice makes us lose our focus from the Lord by seeking our rights or desiring to settle matters, then seeking justice is an idol that has become a stronghold in our lives. While justice in and of itself is God’s desire, but only within the confines of His word and His will. Otherwise it is out of order and can take over our emotions, actions, and dominate us terribly!!!

9. Jesus saw injustice around him all the time. He saw how the governmental leaders had put the people in bondages. He saw the religious leaders causing injustice in people’s lives by proudly thinking they were better than others. While he addressed these issues a few times that was not his focus. He didn’t even want people to have to choose between him and the other leaders. His focus was to do God’s will by showing humility, tenderness, and peace in the midst of all the injustice and ultimately to die for our sins.

10. Jesus wasn’t changed because of injustice. Jesus’ knowledge of God was so profound that the religious leaders could not mar the image of God and His love for Jesus. He always spoke and lived from the position of the Father’s love and the Father’s will. Not the other way around. He never acted or said He was oppressed because He had given Himself to the father’s will. He wasn’t forced into it. That’s the key. Oppression is an act of a person or people upon others against their will. However, the moment you decide you are submitting to the acts of injustice, you are free from oppression!! Daniel experienced this, and so did Joseph. This is where victory has been achieved. We spend most of our time either being held to the bondage of oppression, or being disappointed with God. We want God to change our circumstances, and it causes us to become bitter because He doesn’t.  We can even get angry when we see others in oppression.

I believe we have been called to fight oppression in our own lives as well as in the lives of others. However, there is a time and place where we have to surrender ourselves to it as well. When do we know what to do?

A) Come from God’s perspective not from your own emotional experience. Stay steady. Don’t be tossed to and fro by the situation.

B) Be willing to say “yes” to whatever God says is ok even if it doesn’t seem fair to you, or it doesn’t support your view. If you already have your mind set on a certain position, it is a lot harder to hear the Lord and gain His perspective on it. Give time for the Lord to form your perspective or position.

C) Don’t shop for answers because those who love you will tell you that you deserve better.

The Lord’s focus is what you need! Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. While sometime it seems harsh, the injustice is cutting away those things that are not of Him, so we can look more like Him.

D) Speak on injustice with love and meekness. You may or may not be received, but as believers who stand for truth and righteousness, we are called to speak the truth as the Lord leads us.

E) Leave the results with the Lord. There will be times that it will feel that the Lord doesn’t care or He is allowing injustice, mockery, or oppression to go on. We don’t know what the Lord is doing in those times as it is hidden from us. We have to believe what the Bible says about the Lord in those times. Proverbs 11:1 states, “Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight.” He hates dishonest and false evaluation of things. I should only hate it because the Lord hates it and he has put the same thing in my heart. I can’t hate more than He hates and I can’t love more than He loves. Also, I can’t do more than what He wants me to do.  He has a plan and I just need to walk in His plan. The final analysis belongs to the Lord!!

The Lord is a God of justice, and He sent His son to bring forth true justice on the earth. This was Jesus’ purpose. Let’s look at the below scriptures

“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
² He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
³ A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.
⁴ He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands shall wait for His law.” Isaiah 42:1-4

True justice can be accomplished only by the one who sees the whole situation, understands all sides, and has no bias in His view. That’s why the scripture is very clear about not judging situations prematurely. Many times, we only know part of the story, or we have a vested interest on one side. That makes us unqualified to be a fair judge. On the other hand, God is holy. He loves everyone, He is not partial and knows all sides. He is the perfect judge, and He is a merciful father! That’s a beautiful combination that keeps us in awe of Him, but it also gives us comfort and security.

The Justice and the mercy of God demonstrated themselves beautifully in Jesus Christ and Him being crucified, so the justice of God was met through His mercy!! Where there is no justice, oppression is the order of the day. People are in bondage to the yoke of slavery, fear of man or to a system.

In Isaiah 58:6 the scripture tells us:

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?”

The Lord wants to set us free completely. God also requires us to be just people. We all desire justice and fairness in life.  We abhor injustice and partiality. The reality is that the issue of injustice is not going away, so how do we deal with it?

1. We can’t look at injustice the way the world does. According to Isaiah 58 we can live life free from oppression or bondage because we belong to Jesus. If I have not been given a place, position, or power to change the unjust situation, I can say, “Lord you are allowing this, so I submit to it”.

2. We don’t have to be afraid of injustice. God used the greatest injustice in the perfect man, Jesus, to become a sin offering. This illustrates how injustice in the hand of the Lord can be redeemed and can bring forth life giving eternal fruit.

3. Don’t allow injustice or the unjust person to define who you are. This really should be true in any situation. We have to be insulated from the world or people’s definition of us. We belong to the Lord and anything that doesn’t line up with the word of God for our lives; we can’t allow it to define us. For example, having grown up in a culture where males were preferred, that was unjust and wrong. I can’t let that define my identity and who I am. The Lord calls us His sons and daughters and he doesn’t see us through the eyes of favoritism. I have to stand on God’s word rather than on the voice of the culture or family members. This is where faith has to conquer injustice. The injustice cannot be changed by us, but we can stop allowing it to keep us in its grip!!

4. Recognize God is merciful and patient, and he desires for no one to perish. However, He also sees everything and justice is in His hands. If God is not dealing with it right away it doesn’t mean He doesn’t care or He is passive.  He knows how to deal with each situation at the right time. For instance, Noah took 100 years to build the ark while wickedness was going on that whole time. Jesus cleared the temple where it had been turned into a money making business center. The temple had been having that business going on in it for decades or centuries until such a time that Jesus, led by God dealt with it very strongly!!

We will continue with this subject in the next devotional. In the meantime, ask the Lord to examine your heart for any areas that you have been dealt with unjustly and allow the Lord to minister to you. Ask Him to give you a new perspective about the situation or the person involved.

This morning I feel like the Lord has something for each of us through these scriptures. Take time to allow these verses to minister to your heart. There are areas that you have been seeking Him for quite some time. He wants to speak to you today through these scriptures.

Isaiah 62

For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, And her salvation as a lamp that burns. ² The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, Which the mouth of the Lord will name. ³ You shall also be a crown of glory In the hand of the Lord, And a royal diadem In the hand of your God. ⁴ You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the Lord delights in you, And your land shall be married. ⁵ For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, Soshall your God rejoice over you.

“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” Ephesians 1:4

The more we walk in true holiness, the more whole we become. When our desire, passion, & pursuit are to honor Him with our lives, He strips us of the world, and He purges us of ourselves. Holiness is a long process.  The words “in love” are the key terms that define this process.

As performance oriented people, we are too concerned about accomplishing milestones, rather than allowing God to lead us on a journey of a lifetime!!  Deep inside we hope that we can become complete or whole quickly, so we can go about doing His work or fixing others.

The Lord continually reminds us that we can’t solve the world’s problems but we can allow Him to work in us. If God’s will and His kingdom are not established in us, then we can’t influence His kingdom to be established around us. To the level that the Lord has gotten hold of our lives, is the level our lives have the potency to affect change around us. As we grow in Christ-likeness, we become the salt and light that the world needs us to be.

Many times in our Christian Cliché’ we say that we love Jesus, and He is in my heart. The issue is not whether Jesus is in our heart or not, but How much of our heart belongs to Jesus? That’s the essence of our lives. We cannot allow Jesus and self to be the master at the same time. The Lord will continually allow us to get tested, so what is in our heart can get manifested. The Lord will not relent until He has it all. This heart of ours needs to be completely captured by God. Every room, closet, basement belongs to Him. He searches room by room, closet by closet, the basement, and under every unsuspecting good intent until He exposes everything. There is no complete victory until everything that belongs to self, or the enemy, has been either captured or obliterated. No idolatry, no religious piety can stand anymore!!

The central control of our heart must be given over to Jesus. We must apply the cross to our ideas, thoughts, opinions, and past experiences. They are done. It is finished. The authority and the kingdom have been given over to someone more powerful. He is the ruler. He sets the order, and He sets the rules. Anything His new government establishes is the order of the day. The old is dead, and has no power, nor authority.

Praise God for His goodness. Praise God for His authority and His power to bring about the change that He can only bring. The Emancipation Proclamation!!!

“Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days.

 “And the Lord spoke to me, saying: ‘You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward.  And command the people, saying, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. ⁵ Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.

 “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” Deuteronomy 2:2-7

The Lord gave specific instructions in this section of scripture to Moses. The Israelites are about to travel through territories of their brethren, the descendants of Esau. The Lord tells the Israelites that these people will be afraid of them (verse 4). He also gives them instructions in verse 5 and 6 on how to pass through the territory. The Lord goes on to tell Moses about other territories the Israelites will be passing and that He has not planned on giving this territories to them.

This chapter of scripture is very important for our desert seasons of life. When we are going through the desert process there could be long seasons where we have empty hands. We haven’t been given the opportunity to build. We cannot plant because we are in transition. At this point of scripture the Israelites have been on the move for 40 years. They couldn’t build houses, or support themselves, but God sustained them by providing Manna for forty years!!

The book of Genesis describes how God created us in His image and He called us to be fruitful, multiply, & subdue the earth. As people, we have a desire to create, work, produce, prosper, & increase. However, in a long desert journey those needs have to get suspended and we need to allow God to do the work He wants to do in us. He is a faithful God. He will give us what we need, but often in that season He will not give us what we desire.!!

In desert seasons, we need to allow our desires to be subdued by Heaven, or our desires may run our lives. These desires could create dissatisfaction in our lives. They will try to redefine us based on our perceived lack in life. This can lead to jealousy and envy of others who may be in different season of life.

The Lord knew the wandering Israelites would be faced with temptations as they passed through the various territories, so He warned them that none of those territories belonged to them. He had already chosen who should have ownership of those areas. He also didn’t want the Israelites to expect these tribes to treat them with special care or give them something for free. This is the same temptation that we can face in desert season. If we look at others who are settled, we will want what they have. We may expect them to help us get what they have, or expect them to give us something for free because after all we believe someone should pity us!

Patience is hard in desert seasons because you can’t keep yourself busy with just doing things to pass the time. You begin to feel the length of time more than ever. Patience does not have an objective timeline, but it is subjective upon God’s will.  Abraham and Sara experienced this. It wasn’t as if Abraham and Sara hadn’t waited a long time, but they didn’t wait long enough!! As a result they moved into action in the flesh thinking that they have waited long enough.

The root of impatience is unbelief. If we move in haste, it could alter the destiny the Lord has for us, or it could postpone God’s process. We can also bring things into our lives that the Lord did not intend. Abraham’s choice of Ishmael caused this for him and his descendants!!

Today, let’s ask the Lord to give us the grace we need to be patient with His process!!

Who are your friends? How well do you know the people around you?

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. John 2:23-25

Commit: to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in, of the thing believed, to credit, have confidence.

Jesus came to lay down His life for us, so we can have life!!  Jesus declared, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends”. John 15:13 Jesus was not afraid of loving us and giving Himself for us. It was for this purpose that He came to the world; that we may have life and have life more abundantly.

Jesus also knew that although He dearly loved people and His disciples, His relationship with them was not a peer to peer relationship. He was very aware that no matter how much He loved the people, no one was going to love Him the same way that He loved them. Here, we can observe the three types of relationships that Jesus had with people. He had his natural family, his mother, and his brothers. He also had His disciples whom He was training for the Great Commission, and finally He had the crowd who followed Him.

His Natural Family – In these relationships, when his natural family wanted to speak to Him, he very clearly declared, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”  And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” Matt 12: 48

Basically, while Jesus was a man who loved us deeply, he knew that the priority of His relationship and commitment with his people would need to be in relation to how they relate to the father. He would not give priority to natural family affections over the spiritual commitment. On the other hand, while on the cross He asked John to look after His Mother (John 19:27). This was showing us that He still loved her deeply and cared about her welfare after He was going to leave her, but regardless it that didn’t stop Him from doing the will of the Father!!

His Disciples– He spent 3 ½ years of loving, teaching and pouring Himself into these disciples. His focus was always on the fact that at some point He was going to have to leave them. He revealed this to them over time as they were together. Sometimes His statements disappointed His disciples because they were so worldly focused that they were thinking in natural terms about the Kingdom of God. Jesus didn’t change His message to ensure the happiness of the disciples, but He prepared them for what was coming up in the near future, which was going to drastically change their relationships. Just before Jesus went to the cross, in the book of John He tells them, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15.  Their relationship had changed from the position of serving and being taught to the position of friendship with Jesus. Jesus had to observe a level of growth and commitment from the disciples before He could make that kind of statement.  Jesus knew that they needed a certain level of maturity and understanding before he could bring them so close to His heart and His mission.

His relationship with the Crowd– Jesus knew very well that His message wasn’t going to be received by everyone, and He even warned His disciples that they will be persecuted in His name. However, Jesus went a step further. The above scripture (John 2:24-25) tells us that even when people received Him, Jesus did not commit himself to them because He knew what was in people’s hearts. The word “knew” speaks of very intimate knowledge of someone, as a husband and wife would know each other. Since Jesus knew people intimately and what was in their hearts, even when they received Him, He did not commit himself to them. The word “commit” means He didn’t put confidence in them. He knew that people can receive something to be true but unless they are tested, they will not know how strongly they have believed and received something. Time showed how true that was. The very people who cried out on the streets, “Hosanna, Hosanna..,” the following week were shouting “Crucify Him”. Peter, His own special disciple who was the first one in the group of disciples to declare that Jesus was the Messiah, was the one who denied Him three times when he was tested!!!

If Jesus had committed himself to anyone, He could have easily gotten discouraged and given up on God’s plan for His life as well as God’s plan for humanity, but because He didn’t commit Himself to them, He stayed stable and constant in the midst of shifting opinions and hearts.

If we are going to be effective people in our walk with God, we have to be very careful who we commit ourselves to. This is not a casual decision. It cannot be made based on emotion or even based on being heard or understood. This decision needs to be led by the Spirit, or it will lead us astray. We must be patient to allow God to take the relationship through its process and through testing. This will allow people’s character, their commitment, and their trust to be tested before we can see the person or the relationship clearly. This could avoid a lot of offenses, wrong expectations, and hurts in the body of Christ and in our lives. It will also keep us stronger in the faith and less vulnerable to people’s opinion of us. We must stay focused on Christ and understand His will for our relationships!!