MEEKNESS AND VICTORY - THE
DESIRE TO BE MORE LIKE JESUS CHANGES OUR SOUL
God knows what’s best for
us, but, depending on our personalities, some of His requirements seem so much
harder to accept than others. For me, it’s submitting to secular bosses. I wish
God didn’t say that in His Word, but we have the very first example in the very
first book of the Bible, so it must be important. Genesis 16 tells us Sarai was
jealous of her maid, Hagar, and treated her so badly that Hagar fled. An angel
comes to her and says: “’Hagar,
Sarai’s maid, where did you come from, and where are you intending to go?’ And she said, ‘I am running away from my
mistress Sarai.’ The Angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Go back to your
mistress and [humbly] submit to her control’” (Gen. 16:8-9 AMP). WOW,
what a huge bummer!
But doing
things God’s way is always going to be profitable for us, even if we don’t
understand it, and even if it seems so hard. Notice, Hagar didn’t have anywhere
to go. That’s our mistake sometimes: we want to run away; we think we are ready
to go, but God doesn’t have our next
place prepared yet.
There are many verses in
the New Testament where the Lord talks about submitting. 1 Peter 2:18 is one of
those scriptures, and, honestly, I wish I could take it out of the Bible. “Servants,
be subject to your masters with all fear (respect); not only to the good and gentle but also to the forward.” The word ‘froward’ means “crooked, perverse, wicked and
unfair.” Are you kidding?! Do I have to “obey,
yield, subordinate” to one of these types? It doesn’t seem right, and yet the
Word of God requires this kind of action and attitude, as long as our yielding
doesn’t cross the line of what the rest of God’s Word says.
If you are like me and you
don’t like the idea of submitting to crooked bosses, then you probably aren’t
going to like the other verses, 1 Peter 2:13-17, either, but there they are. If you can accept what I present in this article, be
brave and take a look at those verses mentioned above too. They are definitely challenging for most of us I think.
Somehow our actions are
going to have to line up with what God asks of us, even if we don’t like it.
But I’ve come to believe that if we release our ego and pride, and just jump in
and do what God asks, we will get the understanding and the promise at the end of
Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall
keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Today I needed to remind
myself that meekness is a good thing and it is already in me. But lately, I’ve been letting pride override. So, the
Lord led me to go back and re-read an article I wrote a couple of years ago. He wanted to remind me of how He worked in a
similar situation, and how I was able to receive His peace and victory.
September 2014. It was another rush job. The designers were sending over three
samples of red brick, and they wanted me
to do variations of whitewash and aging
on them. The samples arrived late. The mortar wasn’t even dry yet, but they still wanted me to finish them so they
could pick them up the next day. This was
a tough challenge.
I was under pressure to work
quickly. I got three fans out to dry the mortar first. Then I started to mix my
colors. When somebody pushes me in a situation like this, I want to push back.
But I told myself, Jesus is with me. It’s okay. I can do this.
Then the project manager told me
they were coming for the pieces two hours earlier than planned. For a few
minutes there I mentally lost it. ‘What?’ I thought. ‘They
bring me the pieces late. They aren’t even dry enough to paint, and now they want them completed two hours
earlier?’ I started to get angry, and
then a strange thing happened.
I felt a meekness come over me. I
didn’t even have to try to overcome anger or any of that. My old nature of
rebellion just disappeared instantaneously as an overwhelming meekness
enveloped me. It wasn’t me trying to be meek. It was genuine. It clothed me
inside and out, and it felt true and
good. It was like an atmosphere of meekness, through and through, beautiful,
elegant and powerful. ‘This isn’t me,’ I thought. But I didn’t have
the time to ponder it, so even though it felt alien, I went with it.
I finished up the samples before
the deadline, and I’m sure it was the
Lord helping me on that one too. I told my project manager he could call the
guy to pick them up and I followed him over to the job site with my touch-up
kit.
I was so calm and peaceful in this
new air of meekness. I walked onto the job
site in my typical outfit: a tee-shirt and painter pants that
used to be white but now were about
75% covered in paint from various past jobs. My boots were also
paint-spattered. I had on my hard hat and my safety vest which didn’t fit
because they only come in one size, large. I found a place to sit on a dusty
stack of bricks, but I felt like an elegant,
powerful queen in a gorgeous dress and beautiful crown. The meekness wasn’t a weakness.
The designer arrived and picked
the sample he said he just loved. That made me happy, but not nearly as happy
as this new meekness I was experiencing.
It was great to feel genuinely
calm inside, in contrast to the uproar I usually felt in these hurried,
stressful, last minute situations. Some part of my soul had changed. The old
me: sharp-tongued, rebellious and angry. This new meekness had to be the fruit
of the spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23, part of the new me, the Christ in
me.
Romans 7 talks about the two
natures we have in us, the old one and the new one. Only God, through Jesus Christ,
can deliver us from our old nature (Rom. 7:24-25). I had tried my best in the
past to be meek under stress, but even with my strongest efforts it wouldn’t
last very long, and it definitely wouldn’t be true meekness.
But with the miraculous working of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the rebellious,
angry nature of the old Carolyn was replaced by the true and wonderful meekness
of Jesus Christ. That’s the new nature God intended for me to have. It had
nothing to do with me changing myself. It had everything to do with the Lord
working in me to change me into my real self in Christ.
“I can hardly wait to see what the
Lord is going to do today.” It’s an exciting life.
Love, Carolyn
Christmas is coming. One of my
books could make the perfect gift for a friend or relative. Find them here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=aps&keywords=WINGS%20Carolyn%20molica&linkCode=ur2&tag=jmbcsds-20&linkId=XQMVLVZYNBLYAGEM
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