HEART CHECK: HUMILITY IN HEARTACHES

If you were a Christian 10 or 20 years ago, looking back at that time, what would you say was your greatest problem? What is the first answer that pops into your mind if you ask yourself that question today, at this very moment? Now, be honest. Were your immediate thoughts focused on situations, circumstances, or relationships as those things most troubling to you at the present time? Maybe you’ve had to give up your dreams for the wedding you have spent a lifetime planning because of Covid-19. Maybe you’ve worked your way through college only to forego the graduation ceremony that everyone else you know was entitled to have. And the list could go on with far greater problems in life than these. Maybe a loved one just died. Maybe you did have the wedding of your dreams, but you’re now going through a divorce.

Today my daughter would have been 36 years old. She died 8 days shy of her 17^th birthday. It seems like yesterday, but it was 19 years ago. Maybe your perspective just changed because you were given something far more devastating to focus on. That’s a good thing, but I want you to go back to your immediate response to my questions. What is in your heart at any given time?

It is part of our human nature to put our focus on things outside of us as the source of our troubles. For instance, when my relationships are causing me troubles, it is usually because I am focused on the sins of others especially when I perceive the things I think I deserve, my “rights”, are being taken away from me. When I focus on situations and circumstances as the source of my troubles, it is because I find my comfort, joy, peace, and security in the wrong place—typically in what this world offers. For the unbeliever and the believer, the greatest single problem any of us will ever have is our pride.

Typically, when Christians think of pride, their minds jump to characters in the Bible like those of Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, the Pharisees, and others. By seeing the blatant, insolent pride of these narcissists, many will put their outward lives up against that of these men and walk away with a false assurance that pride is not an issue they need to worry about. Nothing could be further from the truth. How can this happen? When modern psychology and the false self-esteem gospel entered the church, Christians got swept up in the delusion and subtle deception that fed our already bloated egos. The flesh loves to be praised, exulted, and made to feel like it is part of the crowd. The flesh wants to “follow Jesus” while being able to enjoy all the “idolatrous blessings” the world has to offer. The flesh feels comfortable walking with one foot in the world and one foot in the Kingdom of God. But it shouldn’t. This should be a red flag that the heart is desperately sick and in need of radical heart surgery.

It was Nebuchadnezzar who had everything the world had to offer—who foolishly believed all he had came from his own hand—who learned the hard way that God is sovereign. “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, ad He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” (Daniel 4:37) At the time Nebuchadnezzar was walking around in his insolent pride, it was God who was holding his leash. He had been given warning after warning—God, in His patience, giving him time to repent.

Satan, that serpent of old, whose very nature is pride, loves to deceive those whose flesh is weak and who are easily tempted. Those who have not made a clear break with the world out of love for it, fall into this category. 1 John 2:15-17—Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

If a discussion on this verse turns to a heated debate over what a Christian should and should not do in this world, my point has not been made. There are those who profess Christ whose lives are hard to distinguish from those around him who do not profess Christ. That’s a problem. If a person absolutely looks no different than the world, then he needs to test himself to see if he is even in the faith. My point is that every individual Christian first needs to be taught that outward sin is evidence of a heart problem. And not only outward sin, but evil thoughts and evil motives need to be checked as well.  Second, he needs to be taught to guard his own heart and watch for areas of weakness in his own flesh. A lack of submission to accountability within the church is another problem seen today when one understoods that pride blinds us to a right assessment of what is in our own hearts.

As the company my husband began in the early 90’s began to flourish, I will never forget a conversation I had with one of my cousins. She said, “It seems as though anything your family touches turns to gold.” That really bothered me. At the time, I didn’t know why, but I don’t remember whether I turned the conversation to give all the glory to God. I had another noteworthy conversation with a friend whose family was having some financial struggles. (Greg and I always believed in tithing. We could give several stories of instances when God blessed in unusual ways when we tithed even out of our poverty.) When this friend originally approached me, I asked her whether her family was tithing. That was the natural path my thoughts followed. As she reached for the check to help with their current needs, she said, “It must be easy to be a Christian if you’re a Podlucky.” I was stunned. Not for one moment did I attribute having money with ease in the Christian life.

I’ve talked about my life to some extent so far in this blog regarding the struggles I have had in replacing the lies of false teaching with truth. Likewise, having struggled with the sin of materialism and then getting wrapped up in a criminal case that purported money laundering (which I might add is appalling to me), the following Scripture is a great reminder to me that God is the source of all good things. I must look to Him alone to be my greatest satisfaction in life.

Two things I asked of You, do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God. (Proverbs 30:7-9)

Maybe your life doesn’t look like that of Nebuchadnezzar’s. Maybe your life doesn’t look like my life when it appeared to those around us that my family had it all. But pride is in each of our hearts, and it must be dealt with.

The following verse is so fitting for today. The sin of pride is seen throughout this passage. This is another reason Covid-19 is a good test with which believers can do a heart check. Life as you know it can change in an instant. God’s will is not necessarily Karla’s will, because Karla doesn’t know what is for her own good. We need to climb back down from off His throne and humble ourselves before Almighty God because He alone is God. Thankfully, He knows how to humble the proud.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. (James 4:13-17) We can see the same presumptuous living in the rich man in Luke 12:16-21. In both passages evidence that God is excluded from life’s equation is seen in the phrase, “I will or we will.”

Proverbs 27:1 – Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. Melissa died suddenly. One moment she was there, and then she wasn’t. This daughter whose life we had been given stewardship for, was taken back by the one who lent her to us for a season. We learned that we could cherish the gift, but we couldn’t hold on too tightly to it. Why is it so hard for us to give up control? Because we erroneously believe that we are god. When they were getting ready to bury Melissa, Greg noticed that the engraved name tag was not spelled correctly. He made the undertaker (the sweetest person you would ever want to meet) remove the plate and have it changed. To me, it seemed extreme. My mother said, “It’s the one thing he can control right now.” Sad, but true of all of us—by default, we find ourselves grasping for anything we believe we can control when life is out of control. What we need to realize and rest in is the truth that life is never out of His control. The One who holds the universe in His hands controls every circumstance in our lives and weaves them all into His perfect plan for us as Romans 8:28 says.

We recognize those who arrogantly live as if God does not exist. But we must be careful that we are not those who believe God exists, admit He is sovereign over all, that His will is perfect, but then live in disobedience to His will by questioning life’s circumstances. You can be certain that whatever is going on in your life today is part of God’s will for your life. Will you accept it from His hand or reject it by rebelling against it in stubborn disobedience? Will you examine the reactions of your heart to trouble to see whether there is evidence of pride or humility there? Self rises up in rebellion. Humility submits and grows in the knowledge of who God is and who man is in light of God’s holiness.