Humbling ourselves before God!

Some years back, I really got confused about fasting. I thought, if my 'fasting' can bring answers, then it was like God's answers were based on something that I can actually 'do.' That cannot be true for God cannot be manipulated by our 'actions'. Answers to prayer depend on many things like our faith, our choices, God's time, and His will for our lives. So, for one whole year, I stopped 'fasting,' but of course, I prayed! If we sincerely seek answers, God has a unique way of answering our questions and providing answers! Here is what I understood!

'Fasting' is a way of humbling ourselves before God. What then is humbling ourselves before God? We think kneeling and praying is humbling ourselves before God. We believe reading the Bible reverentially is humbling ourselves before God. It may be, but it is not all there is to it. When we get our flesh under control, then we are humbling ourselves before God. Considering others better than ourselves is humbling ourselves before God. Being teachable by God is humbling ourselves before God. That is where our problem lies. We find it easy to kneel while praying or reading the Bible, but we find it difficult to obey God and His commandments. The moment we feel that we are better than others, it leads to pride! Being humble in every way with God and our fellow humans need our flesh to be under control more than we can even imagine. The Bible says, "For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world." (1 John 2:16)

We can easily 'fast' from certain foods or some TV shows. But we are called to go deeper and change our attitudes and actions that 'control' us. So, 'fasting' is not about God, but it is all about us. 'Fasting' is not about twisting God's hand to get all our prayers answered. It is a discipline of putting our flesh and our desires under control so that we can genuinely humble ourselves before God! Believe me, it takes way more conscious effort than just kneeling!

My friend, let us take time to see what controls us today and ask the Holy Spirit to help us for the Bible says "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." (James 4:10).

Categories: Weekly DevotionalsAuthor: Hephzibah StephenDate: 10th June 2019 Share: newsletterDisplay date: 12th June 2019

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