“But He gives us more grace. Therefore He says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble…Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.” James 4:6,10 NKJV

God doesn’t go around passing out free grace gift cards to everyone. He offers free grace gift cards to everyone, but we have to accept it from Him. The proud do not want grace. Because grace requires them to be humble. Grace requires them to put self down and stop chasing around the gods of pride. The more gods of pride we collect the harder our hearts become and we want more, more, more. Hardening of the heart is a natural consequence of pride. Gods of pride are made of rock and stone and wood, so naturally the more we collect the more we become like them. On the other hand the more time we spend seeking God, the more we become like the Him and He is the God of humility.  

Think about it….what do you seek after needing more of, wanting more of? Shoes? What kind of god is that? As we bow down to the latest style and color of leather, or pleather, or fabric. We put it on and think we look pretty great…on the outside. But those new shoes we so desired crusted up our heart with just a little bit more pride. It doesn’t have to be shoes, it can be a job promotion, a bigger house, a faster car, a beautiful girlfriend, front row seats at the show, the biggest tv screen or the latest iphone on the day it comes out. It can be an attitude of superiority, a pride of our knowledge, our education, our GPA or IQ. Or pride in the numbers in our bank account. Or maybe we bring the best food to potluck, or have the biggest muscles at the gym, or the fastest time running a marathon. All we do should be done for the glory of God, not for our own personal glory. (1Corinthians 10:31)

God has to resist the prideful heart. It is a natural consequence of choosing death over life. In the terms of infinity, death can not co-exist with life. We live a finite life. Our knowledge is finite. Our pride chooses finite gods. The only way we can join with infinity is to choose an infinite God… and the infinite God is humble. He was not too big or too great, to send His son to die for our sins. It is because of His bigness and greatness that He is able to offer us free grace gift cards. 

 And so it is with us, with every irritation in life, every put down by someone, every time we are cut off in traffic or passed up for a promotion because the boss’s cousins daughter got it instead,…when we serve the God of humility we have the grace to live bigger, greater lives of humility and forgiveness just like He does. We don’t become God, we become like him in the sense that we allow the power received from His free grace gift card to be lived out in our lives. Which is interesting because that is exactly the tidbit of truth the snake twisted as he threw it out to Eve, “you will become like God himself.” But the lie was that if you chose to do your own thing, seeking after your own pleasure, you would become like God himself and that is simply not true because self seeking increases our pride and pride is death because the God of infinity ‘resists a prideful heart’.  

“But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.’ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”   James 4:6-10 NIV

During a Wednesday night Bible study exploring the joy of praising God, I said that at times there seem to be no words big enough to praise God.  Who He is, defies description , any words I have are too small to adequately describe the greatness of God.  Someone else in the group suggested we use the names in the Bible for God, for example He is our Rock.

I got to thinking about that.  God is our Rock.  He is also the Truth.  I really do not like it when someone lies to me.  I’m sure you feel the same about being lied to.  The truth is light, while a lie is darkness, so when someone lies it muddies the waters and it is hard to see clearly.  When we believe in God, the Truth, we stand firmly on the Rock. It is only when we choose to believe a lie that we have nothing firm to stand on and we start slipping and falling. 

Take for instance, if when I have a frustrating moment in life, rather than turning to God and allowing Him to give me peace in that moment, I choose to reach for a cookie instead. Cookies will not bring me long term peace because too many cookies and I will gain a few pounds.  Then I reach for another lie.  I tell myself I can get myself out of this mess.  But no amount of dieting, working out at the gym, buying the latest running shoes, etc.  will fill the space I originally tried to fill with cookies.  I want to make a disclaimer, there is nothing wrong with healthy eating, working out and buying new shoes, the only problem with any of them is when we try to use them to fill up the emptiness inside.  This is the lie the devil tells us; Buy more, do more, and you will be happy.  But it is not true.  Only standing on the Rock of Truth will quench our thirst for something more.  I find it interesting that when the Israelites needed water in the desert God provided it from a rock.  Only God, our Rock, can provide us with living water so we will never thirst again.  

The rich young ruler in Luke 18 was seeking something more.  He had plenty of cookies, more than enough shoes, and didn’t need a gym membership because his home gym rivaled anything in town and he didn’t have to share it with anyone.  But he wanted more and couldn’t figure out on his own what that more was.  So he went to see the new teacher in town hoping maybe he had the answer.  The young man asked Jesus, “What do I need to do to obtain eternal life?”  Jesus boiled it down to this profound answer, “Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me.” 

Can you imagine the scenes flashing through the rich young rulers mind when Jesus answered his question? He probably looked at Jesus and couldn’t imagine dressing like a poor man. Maybe he remembered times he had made fun of people wearing clothes like that with his friends. If he sold all his stuff and gave it to the poor…well he probably wasn’t even sure they deserved it. Afterall he was rich because God had blessed him. And follow Jesus? He knew what kind of peple followed Jesus. Why some of his disciples were uneducated fisherman and he had been educated by the finest minds in the country. He could just picture the reaction from his friends and relatives if he told them he was selling everything he had to give it to the poor then to top it off he was going to follow this Jesus fellow around the country side. Why he would be the laughing stock for years to come.    

The deepest truth is wrapped up in Jesus  answer to the rich young ruler…Sell all you have, give the money to the poor and come follow me.  We must get rid of anything stopping us from following Jesus.  It wasn’t the young man’s money that stopped him from following Jesus, it was the pride the money created in his heart.  Jesus knew it was the money that created the heavy burden in his heart.  But when presented with the truth he chose not to stand on the rock of truth, causing him instead to stumble over it.  The problem with not accepting Gods truth when he gives it to us, is that if we do not choose to stand on the rock of truth we will trip over it instead. 1 Peter 2:8 says, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they do not obey God’s word…”

The rich young ruler chose not to follow Jesus, not because he couldn’t give up his money, but because he couldn’t give up his pride.  His money activated his pride and kept it healthy and alive.  He couldn’t give up his own plans for his life.  He insisted on sitting on the throne of his heart and ruling his life…one temporarily sweet delicious cookie at a time.