Ginormous Pride
One of the life changing revelations the Lord has given me is to recognize my weakness and His strength in my life. As an American male, this is big… I have a huge ego and ginormous pride; a mountain of macho crap the Lord could not get around, but had to pierce and go through in order to get to my heart.
The Lord is like that, isn’t He? He doesn’t go around walls or over walls; He goes through them in order to get to us. And, from my experience, He doesn’t let anything get in His way, including our pride, our ego, or our silly ideas about how well we are or how good we are doing. When He goes through those walls or mountains of egotistical pride, we not only get uncomfortable, but we start to respond in a variety of ways: denial, indifference, building more walls, excuses, reclusion, pretending we are so ‘Johnny Bravo cool’, and flat out running in the opposite direction.
You might question me, “Glenn, how do you know this stuff?”
I’m glad you asked. I’ve learned this by my own reaction to having my macho honor plucked and pruned, pierced and trimmed, and cut down to a miniscule size. From the experience, I will tell you now I am thankful God will do whatever necessary to remove whatever is interfering in your relationship with Him, even if I fought Him all through the ordeal.
I finally came to understand what Paul was telling the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4:7:
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
This passage is actually good encouragement, especially for an ex-hotdog like me. The jars of clay symbolizes each of us, fragile and weak, easily broken under any pressure or when used in any way. The treasure symbolizes God’s presence in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit, making us resilient and supernaturally powerful… not because of the cracked clay, but because of what is in the cracked clay!
Throughout Scripture and throughout my walk with God, I see God does not need the power of man to achieve His purpose – in fact, in most cases, the power of man gets in the way. God mocks man’s power. He laughs at our egotistical efforts to be good. He does not use the high and mighty men of Scripture, but instead uses the weak things of this world to confound the wise (or those of us who think we are wise). I am a witness to this first hand, and we can also read about it in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31:
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things– and the things that are not– to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him 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.”
This passage makes me glad I wasn’t born of noble lineage, yet even though I wasn’t I still had to deal with that rigid wall of American pride and male ego. My self-image blinded me when I looked in the mirror and I had trouble seeing myself: a broken, weak heathen in desperate need of Jesus Christ. I am that weak, cracked jar of clay, and once I could see myself in this way… and more importantly, accept myself in this manner, God could do something with me.
2 Corinthians 3:5
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
One of the life changing revelations the Lord has given me is to recognize my weakness and His strength in my life. This changed my relationship with Him and my perspective in life.
Now, I’m not telling you I have it all together on this subject and don’t think for a moment I don’t have times where I strut around like a peacock with my feathers at full span, but I continue to keep my focus on Him in the hopes He will change my thinking in those “other” areas, too. This is all part of the journey… will you join me?
Let me encourage you to ask the Lord to reveal those areas in your life where you are hiding your cracked, fragile clay jars behind walls of pride and ego. In prayer, ask God to help you see yourself in a pure and truthful light… His light, exposing your weakness while simultaneously filling you with His grace and strength.
Is it easy? No.
Is it painless? No.
Is it worth it? Most definitely… freedom is always worth it.
Contact me if you need help in the area, want to pray together, or just want to chat about this subject.
Glenn Sasscer
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