A Humble Confidence

Saturday March 7, 2015

After helping his team win American pro football´s 2014 Super Bowl, a corner back declared in a post-game interview that he was the best play at his position, and opposing teams should send only their best players against him. His comments sparked a national discussion on the role of courtesy in sports. Although his remarks offended some people, you can´t deny that he´s supremely confident in his abilities.

What about believers in Jesus? Are we allowed to be confident, or is that somehow opposed to our calling of humility? (Ephesians 4:2; Philippians 2:3). The apostle Paul doesn´t seem to think so. In 2 Corinthians he makes it clear that we have reason to be confident before God because we are qualified and competent (3:4).

But he also clearly states that this isn´t based on our own merits but on God, who has qualified us (v. 5). And He hasn´t approved us to pursue our own ends and purposes. No, we´re to be ministers of the new covenant that we have in Christ (v.6). And so, we can be confident in our abilities, as long as we recognize that it´s God who makes us good at what we do - and what we´re called to be is ministers of the gospel.

Sometimes I lament that I have nothing of any worth to bring to the kingdom, when that isn´t true! At other times, I recognize my abilities and am confident in them - failing to remember that they´re not suppose to be used for myself. So I often live in one truth or the other, but not both.

In Paul´s words, I find a rare balance between confidence and humility; I can be confident because God has qualified me, but I remain humble because I know that the work for which He´s qualified me is not my own. It´s His! - Peter Chin

Read
2 Corinthians 3:1-6
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant - not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Philippians 3:1-10
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 
Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh - though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more : circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Psalms 71:1-6
In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness;
turn your ear to me and save me.
Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go;
give the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of evil and cruel men.

For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord,
my confidence since my youth.
From birth I have relied on you; 
you brought me forth from my mother´s womb. 
I will ever praise you.

Question to Ponder
How are you doing at balancing humility and confidence?
How are you living out the fact that God has made you competent as a minister of the new covenant?

**Article taken from ODJ (Our Daily Journey with God) Mar 2015 - May 2015 issue

Helping the Stranded

Sunday December 14, 2014

After Nelson Mandela´s death at the end of 2013, many stories surfaced of his genuine concern for others. In 1950s Apartheid South Africa, Mandela once saw a white woman standing beside her broken car in Johannesburg. Approaching her, he offered help and was able to fix the car.

When the grateful woman offered to pay him, he said, "Oh no, that´s not necessary." "But why else would you, a black man, have done that for me if you didn´t want money?" she asked. "Because you were stranded at the side of the road," he replied. This same man went on to become the first democratically elected president of the country in 1994.

In this season of giving, most of us are more generous and outward-focused than we might ordinarily be. The apostle Paul applauded the church in Philippi from his prison cell and thanked them for their generosity (Philippians 4:15-18), but he also warned them against wrong motives (2:3-4). His words remind us not to be selfish, urge us to be humble, call us to think of others as better than ourselves and require that we be genuinely interested in them and their needs (2:3-4).

The apostle challenged others to have the same attitude as that of Jesus Christ : though He was God, He gave up His divine privileges, took on the humble position of a slave and was born a human being. He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal´s death on a cross. God therefore raised Him to the place of highest honour and gave Him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (2:5-11).

He gave His life because we were stranded in sin and death. May we live out His servant heart. - Ruth O'Reilly-Smith

Read
Philippians 2:1-11
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus :
Who, being in very nature God, 
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, 
taking the very nature of a servant, 
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, 
he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Matthew 7:12
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets

Luke 6:31
Do to others as you would have them do to you

Acts 20:35
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said : "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Question to Ponder
How can you truly serve others this Christmas Season?
How do humility and serving others fit together?

**Article taken from ODJ (Our Daily Journey with God) Dec 2014 - Feb 2015 issue