For by the grace given me I say to everyone of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:3-5
In our current culture, it is all too easy to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Unfortunately, we find ourselves traveling against the current when we make the decision to look at ourselves with sober judgment, but it’s a must.
Jesus Himself demonstrated a depth of humility that I struggle to even fathom. This One Who chose to come to earth in the form of a baby, imagine the humility in this act. He was already God and He loved us so much that He decided to be born of the Holy Spirit and an earthly woman to be brought into the world as a baby. Have you ever really thought this through? God always existed. God has always been three in one. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. It’s not as if Jesus didn’t exist before He was born on earth. I know this is so hard to comprehend, but to live in full reverence and sober gratitude, we must take ourselves into this thought and fully appreciate what occurred. To further embrace the gift of our salvation, don’t we owe it to Jesus to remember where He came from? I think we do.
Likewise, we should all remember where we came from. Being born in our own sinful nature, none of us could be saved on our own. None of us was born saved. We are all born sinners who must be saved by grace. When we remember our origin, I think it brings a sober humility to our day to day interactions with others. We are to never consider ourselves to be more than others and remembering our own sin nature can help to remain sober in our outlook.
We must also look at each other with this same sober mindedness. For instance, our own kids are not perfect. They are not born perfect. They are born with a sin nature and must also be saved by grace. That grace which is strictly a gift from God. When we act as if our own kids are incapable of being sinful, or if we simply believe every word they say and don’t listen to God and weigh what our kids recount to us, then we not only do others a disservice, we also do our kids a disservice. They don’t need the burden of our always believing they would never falter, and this type of behavior can actually serve as a hindrance in them realizing they need Jesus too. We are ALL born sinners who must be saved by grace.
Prayer Moment: Today I encourage you to take a moment and with reverence take a look at all God has done for you, especially Jesus coming to earth so you can be saved. Thank Him for this amazing gift. Then take an honest assessment of yourself and the way you see yourself and those around you. Maybe you’ve erred in the way you see yourself or others. Maybe you’ve fallen into the trap of seeing your kids as perfect at the detriment of them realizing they too must be saved. Maybe you’ve been too hard on yourself and others and need to revisit the grace that we received even though we don’t deserve it. Whatever the case, take a minute and let God tarry over your heart for a moment and have an honest conversation with Him.
365 Days in the Presence 