Norm Millar – Senior Pastor – Harvest London, Ontario
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
-2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Jesus Christ is everything. He is to be worshiped. He alone is to receive glory. He is majestic, all-powerful, perfect, and beautiful. His many attributes can all summed up by the word awesome! And we are none of those things! We simply can’t compare, yet because of our pride, it doesn’t take long for us to try to remove Jesus from His throne and attempt to be lord of our own life.
Now you might be thinking, “I never do that.” The truth can often hurt as it pierces into our soul. So this may sting a bit, but truth is—we all do that at times; most of the time, actually. There are many evidences of this, but a common example is getting upset when someone doesn’t acknowledge or respect our position. “How dare they speak to me like that: She walks right in and didn’t even acknowledge me.” “I am the leader of this team, but he won’t give me the respect I am due.” Sound familiar?
We craft our own idols, made in our image, and then expect others to worship them. Sound a little harsh or extreme? The truth is, we don’t acknowledge our sinful pride for what it is—idolatry. Essentially, we are prone to try to take God’s rightful place and want others to bow to us.
We excel at covering our idols with a façade so they don’t appear to be idols. Take a peek below the surface and you find stinking, selfish, ugly pride which is vying for Christ’s throne. When others don’t bow to and recognize our idol, we get upset, angry, bitter, jealous, and won’t let go of being offended. Beloved, it is exhausting to always stand guard by our idol trying to get others recognize and bow to it. But it doesn’t have to be this way!
Freedom, rest, and joy comes as we humbly and willingly tear down our idols and fall at the throne of the only true God. We must declare that He alone is worthy of our worship. Freedom is found by boasting in our weaknesses. I don’t mean a false humility and self-deprecating words spoken in hope that others will disagree. I mean truly boasting about your honest inability, lack of resources, struggles with obedience, and weak faith.
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