WHEN WE GO LOW, GOD WILL DRAW NEAR

Deuteronomy 8:4-5, “Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. So you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.” Chasten means to discipline, to instruct, and to teach. It does not say that He taught them that their garments did not wear out and that there foot did not swell, but rather He taught them through kindness. He taught them to recognize that they had to humble themselves to come into the possession of life. We can pray for hours and belief with all our heart, but if we do not have the ability to lower ourselves, we will not make it.

Speaking about the tribe of Dan, it says in Genesis that a Danite is like a serpent on the ground that bites the horse with a rider. A horse speaks of pride, and when we allow our pride to rise and not lower ourselves than like a serpent in the grass we will suddenly be bitten and wonder where it came from. There is no greater danger then when we always increase. That is why Paul had to go to Arabia so he could go through the process of decrease, and that he could know and experience God’s touch. When we go low, God will draw near. He chastens me, instructs me, and teaches me how to bend below Him, how to be under the shadow of His wings and how to be in the cleft of the rock. We can never be in the cleft of the rock without humility. Without humility, we will think we are ready for things that we are not, like Peter, who thought he was ready to go to prison for Christ, but denied Him three times.

Deuteronomy 8:7, “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land….” A good land means that everything is fulfilled in me, every sense, every need, every desire; every detail is fulfilled in my life. When God brings us into fullness, and we do not have humility, it will kill us.

Deuteronomy 8:10, “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.”

I want to illustrate what I think it is to bless the Lord. In Brazil, there is a statue of Christ and the artist has done something unique. When tourists come to see this great sculpture, there is only one way to see the eyes of Jesus as the artist intended. To capture the look of those eyes, you must go onto your knees, bend low and look up from a low position to see the expression of the eyes of Jesus. In Song of Solomon 2:3, it describes an apple tree among the trees of the wood, a little tree among the big trees. Some of us have grown so tall we can no longer sit under the little apple tree that is a representation of Christ. We have grown so tall that we look down on Christ, instead of coming under the shadow of His wings. The images of ourselves are so huge, that we outgrow our need for Christ. To eat of the sweet fruits of Jesus, we have to bend low under that apple tree.

Matthew 23:12, “And whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

James 4:6, “...God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Humility is not a character trait. It is the ability to lower ourselves and to make a choice to resist or to yield. Humility means having a low opinion of oneself and ability, a low position, submission, unassertive, unassuming, and unpretentious. It’s not important what I think. It is important what Christ thinks about me. God will not use us because we are determined, but because we can lower our selves so that He can exalt us. “My daughter, there is no greater gift to express who I am than the gift of humility.”

In His Love,
      Sigi

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