HUMBLE YOURSELF, BE EXHALTED
1 Peter 5:5
In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
"God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble."
It was a great morning. I had filled my tag the day before and I just wanted to go sit and enjoy the morning. I went to hunt a new place, a valley we had never hunted before. When daylight broke there were several deer in the valley below. I could see one big buck on the slope across the valley that was guarding a doe that must have been about ready to breed.
I watched buck after buck approach that big buck, but every one of them would get close and when the mature buck would step forward the younger bucks would back off. About mid-morning another buck entered the valley and great buck of similar size to the first buck. He walk up the valley and challenged to first buck.
What I observed that morning I will never forget. The two bucks clashed antlers and pushed and shoved for a few minutes. Clumps of fur flew into the air, dust and dirt formed a cloud around the two bucks. In the end that last challenger backed off and limped back down the valley below me. He submitted to the older, more mature buck.
In our minds submission can be a wonderful thing... When others are submitting to us! But which of us really wants to submit to others or to anything? Who wants to lower themselves?
A.W. Tozer once wrote,
"The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven't yet come to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us."
So why do we find it so hard to give up of what we want to give in to what God wants? SIN. We think we know best... We want what we want and that's all there is to it. God as put others around us, that love us, to help "steer" us through life. Listen to those that give godly advise, humble yourself, quiet your heart and your mouth, read and absorb God's word and submit to the spiritual leadership of others.
The word submit is translated from the Greek word hupotasso. The hupo means "under" and the tasso means "to arrange." So we are to arrange ourselves under God and those that God has put over us.
I love the quote from Jesus in Matthew 23:12
"For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
Who doesn't want to be exhalted?
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