Are You Arrogant?
Saturday night. Men’s retreat. Bonfire.
“Write on this card the issue in your life you haven’t turned over to God.” The card gets nailed to a cross, the cross is raised for the visual, and one by one they are ripped from the cross and thrown in the fire. Moving. Convicting. Healing.
I’ve done this before. Without thinking, I take pen in hand and start to write “busyness” on the card. It’s been my besetting sin forever. I need to repent….slow down, be present. I pray and quickly write a word on the card. But when I look down at the word I wrote, I was startled to see….
“Arrogance”
“What? I’m not arrogant! I give God credit for everything” I thought.
“Lord, what do you mean?” I asked.
“You rush out in the morning and walk right by the place where you pray. Are you about serving me? Yes. But you assume I want you to do today what you did yesterday. You don’t talk to me or ask for new instructions. When you don’t ask what I might have for you to do, that’s arrogance, not humility”.
I looked down at the word on the card. “Arrogance.” A soldier who takes on his day without having orders from his commanding officer would be in trouble. How then can I head out in the morning without consulting my Commanding Officer, the King of Kings, to ask “Lord, what would you have me do today?”
A friend of mine got up one day and asked “Lord, what would you have me do today?” No sooner than he’d asked, his sister’s name came to mind. “Call her” were the words that came into his mind. They had drifted apart, having deep disagreements about a boyfriend of hers. But he called her right away. “So how are you today?” he asked. She launched into small talk, but seemed really pensive. He asked more questions. She told him she was pregnant and had an appointment with an abortion doctor later that morning. He asked her to postpone the appointment and have coffee with him instead. She did. They talked it over. They prayed.
She kept the baby. He’s now a thriving little boy. My friend has a nephew. God used him to save a life . . . all because he stopped long enough to ask God for his “orders” for the day and then took action on what God put on his heart. He prayed, he asked, he listened, he obeyed, lives were changed forever and God got the glory!
So I’ve repented. I’ve been back on my knees at the table in my closet. God reminded me that he still loves me and he welcomed me back. In fact, it was like he’d been there waiting for me; like he never left. Because he didn’t. I did.
Question: Do you have a place where you meet with God every day? Have you stopped seeking his guidance each day? Are you willing to humble yourself before God, ask for instructions and act upon them in faith?
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I’ve been humbled.