pesky strings

A few posts ago I shared a dream or vision that God gave me. I will share with you now the second part to that dream. I remember the picture I drew in my journal years ago; it was so clear.

I had been walking through the fields (in relationship with God) and I came to a cliff that descended directly into a seemly bottomless pit. On the other side of the pit was land carrying the Castle of Knowing God. I knew that in order to get to the Castle I must walk off the stability of the cliff and trust that Jesus would carry me to the land, for there was no other way to get to the Castle. As I begin to walk forward I felt something holding me back. There were strings attached to the ground and to me. Every time I tried to walk forward I felt them tugging me back.

At the time of the dream I didn’t have a full picture of what the strings could be that were hindering me from getting closer to ultimately surrendering my all to God. I thought they could be sins. Now I think they could also be doubts, fears, a lack of trust, sneaky pride.

Why is it so hard for us to yield, surrender, or submit our lives to God? Our pride tells us we don’t need God, we can do life without Him. It whispers lies that we are better off if we are in control. We begin to look at ourselves, get our eyes off of God in all His amazing wonder. Just like Peter did (Matthew 14:22-36) when Jesus invited him to come out of the boat onto the water. He wasn’t really looking at himself but the circumstances (the waves) and he began to sink. The point was his eyes were off of Jesus.

I think there is also a hindrance called “spiritual pride”. It is the sneakiest of all pride. It is the one the Pharisees were so drowned in that they didn’t see Jesus for who He was when he was with them. People who call themselves Christians often struggle with it. I know I have. It can sneak up..we begin to get our eyes off Jesus and compare ourselves to each other. The attitude is “I am closer to God than that person” or “I do a lot more good than that person” etc. We begin to become haughty as we compare ourselves and look at others. We begin to think we are doing pretty good.

The cure to any pride is to look to Jesus. When we compare ourselves to His standard we don’t measure up. We never will. That is the whole point of the cross. God could have given us justice. We could be paying for all the ways we have wronged Him all of our sin and pride. Instead out of His love He gave us mercy and provided Jesus who took all of what we deserved so that we could again have fellowship with God.

Pride is gross in all forms and it is what produces doubt and disobedience.

Jesus came to us from a humble home. That is one reason that the Pharisees didn’t recognize Him as God. They had a picture of how things should be. They were looking for a man of influence, a rich king. That was there plan of the way He was going to come, but not God’s plan.

God’s plan is humility.

Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Philippians 2:5-8 “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.”