A complete salvation 5: to be a saint(2): fighting against the biggest enemy -- pride of self.
Dear All:
To continue A complete salvation 5: To be a saint(2) --
fighting against the biggest enemy -- pride of self;
giving all glories, praises and thanks to God;
obeying God's command.
(2) To be a saint, we need to fight against our biggest enemy: our ego, our selves, and pride of self.
There is one hidden enemy that is the biggest yet unnoticed - our ego, our selves and pride of self.
Pride of self together with devil lured Eve and Adam to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit and bring the original sin to human beings. Pride of self blinded Pharisees to know real Messiah, the Son of God - Jesus Christ and missed the great salvation. Pride of self is still the biggest and unnoticed rocks that block our way to heaven nowadays.
If we live a relatively restricted life and do a little work for God only because of the pride of self and thinking that we are better than others and make achievement by our own efforts, it will not bring one
any closer to God. On the contrary, it is actually very dangerous that pride of self can make one the furthest to God like Pharisees, like Eve and Adam, even like devil.
Remember that God created us, build the earth for us to live and prepare all kinds of food for us to eat. Our every day's life is because of Him. All the wisdom and good ideas are from Him. Our conscience is also from Him and He writes the law in everyone's mind. Everything good is from Him.
"A man can only receive what is given him from heaven." (JOHN 3:27)
"I said to the LORD,' You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.'" (PSALM 16:2)
"For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" (1 CORINTHIANS 4:7)
"LORD, ...all that we have accomplished you have done for us." (ISAIAH 26:12)
"It is because of him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written:' Let him who boasts boast
in the Lord.'" (1 CORINTHIANS 1:30-31)
All the glories, praises and thanks should belong to Him. That is one truth we must know and learn well. Any self-complacency and self-satisfaction is a poison for our Spirit. Always remember give all glories to God. Otherwise, it is kind of like stealing.
"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." (ROMANS 1:21)
"Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be glory, because of your love and faithfulness." (PSALMS 115:1)
Obey the LORD:
The whole Old Testament about the Israel's history can be summarized in two sentences:
"Blessings for obedience; curses for disobedience."
It is not exaggerated at all that we are like dust and worms and even emptiness in front of the universe and the same - God. God grant us the free will that is a very precious gift and even a status as His children (if we really behave well). But we have all tasted the bitterness of the results of Adam and Eve's disobedience - separated from truth - God and life. God respect the free will He grant to human. He never force one to accept His words. He let us to make the
choice. But we need to take the results of our choices. Even now, most of the people would like to take the way to death after only a few tens of years and live with all kinds of worries and burdens, rather
than follow God's word to go to eternal life and enjoy the peace and joy from God right now. How silly? Yet they think they are smarter!
We call God as our Father in Heaven and we call ourselves His servants. Then how a child avoids making mistakes and what is the proper manner of a servant?
An important tip to avoid making mistakes is:
Ask for the permission before doing or saying anything!
A lesson that I learned from Holy Spirit is to remember that I should never be the starter, even on doing good things. Because if we get used to starting the good things by ourselves, we will also start the
bad things by ourselves and make deadly mistakes without even being aware of it like Eve and Adam. Anyone who builds up this good habit will be blessed and set free from the worries that we will do a lot of wrong things in front of God. We can (a) pray and ask for God's will through Holy Spirit; (b) since we are still on earth, in most of the cases we might not have direct commands, give it a think and check whether it is in accordance to the Bible or not before we do anything; (c) if we have not get familiar with the Bible yet, check it by our consciences (the law that God written in our mind) and follow our heart to do the right things.
Follow Jesus Christ's example:
We know that God is the absolute truth. Not only all the power, but also all the righteousness, holiness, wisdom, goodness, orderliness, love and kindness are from Him. We can directly see it through His Only Son - Jesus Christ. Almost all the people admit (no matter Christians or non-Christians) that Jesus is the nicest man ever lives in this world. Yet when the rich young man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him." Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered." No one is good - except God alone..." (MARK 10:17-18) Here Jesus Christ set an example to us all about the proper humble attitude to God and give all glories to God.
Although no man cannot get compared with Jesus Christ, as Christians, we must be the followers and our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Learn his humble attitude and obedience - the obedience to even going through all the great
sufferings on the cross! - All glories and praises and thanks be to Father and Jesus Christ that we get saved through it.
"Jesus gave them this answer:' I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does....'" (JOHN 5:19)
"For I (Jesus Christ) have come down from Heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me." (JOHN 6:38)
"...that I (Jesus Christ) do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me...." (JOHN 8:28)
"'My food,' said Jesus,' is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work....'" (JOHN 4:34)
"By myself I (Jesus Christ) can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me." (JOHN 5:30)
"'...yet not my will, but yours be done.'" (LUKE 22:42)
Some who still don't understand might murmur: how about the freedom? If we have more basic knowledge of God and have more honest self-knowledge, we will know that obey the truth will give us the real freedom. A lot of testimonies of others have told you how the
truth set them free.
"Now the LORD is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is freedom." (2 CORINTHIANS 3:17)
"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (JOHN 8:32)
All glories, praises and thanks be to God forever
God bless us to be in the truth and follow the truth
in Jesus
servant of Christ
