Wetzel's Blog

Humility is where royalty is born

Royalty typically comes from a place of honor, prestige, wealth, and supremacy.  So why was it that the Son of the God came to earth through a teenager girl, in a lowly town, the son of a common carpenter, and in a stable with animals?  Why not in Jerusalem with the Priests?  Why not in Egypt with Pharaoh? Why not in Rome with Caesar?  One conclusion is that God the Father wanted to send us a message about humility.

 

Humility is one of the trademarks of Jesus, from his birth till his death.  It is a value that God chose not only to “tell” us, but to “show” us.  Humility does not come natural for a human.  Our natural tendency is to want prestige, wealth and honor.  We see those things as what is ultimately to be attained in this life.  We would rarely say “By the end of my life, I want to become the most humble person on earth”.  Our hopes and dreams are commonly the exact opposite of that.  Success for us in this life is being the greatest and getting to the top of our ladder (whatever that ladder may be).  Our enemy, the devil, wants us to desire this because he knows that when honor is desired, humility is eliminated.  Our thoughts, opinions, and reactions are formed in those desires.  This is why Nathanael’s reaction in John 1 was so enlightening.

 

John 1:45-46 speak of what our natural response typically is: “Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ And Nathanael said to him, ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’  Philip said to him, ‘Come and See’.”

 

Nathanael was in shock and in disbelief that the Messiah would come from a carpenter in Nazareth (a lowly person and in lowly place), and not from a place of royalty and supreme spirituality.  His reaction is indicative of ours.  We too get sucked into a world belief system which teaches that the ultimate place of happiness is found in having a lot of really nice stuff, or in the most acknowledged position, or in the easy and happy life.  But through the example of Jesus, we see that the ultimate seat of honor is found in the least and in the lowest.  It is found in humility.  How are pride, position and possessions keeping you from the best?  Humility is what we are to desire.  Jesus said in Luke 9:24 “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, is the one who will save it”.  Embrace humility today, because in lowliness of position and possessions is where honor is found.

Unconfessed Sin

Sin takes a major toll on us physically and emotionally.  And we all sin: Rom 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.  But I think we tend to underestimate the impact of unconfessed sin.  We have been tricked by our enemy, the devil, to believe that even small unconfessed sins are: not a big deal and if we ignore it…it will fix itself over time…or it will eventually be forgotten…or its initial impact will dissipate.  But unconfessed sin will take a life long toll on our body as long as it remains silent before an all knowing God.  There are many implications of unconfessed sin, but let’s take a look at two.

 

Ps 31:10 & 32:3-5 “For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity” & “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.  I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

 

Unconfessed sin takes a toll on our physical body.  These verses in Psalm talk about David’s physical anguish because of his sin.  He says that his strength fails and his bones waste away.  Keeping our iniquities unspoken to God, will initially and continually wear us down.  In our day to day life we will be weak, tired and feel unrest.  We like to attribute our physical fatigue to many things, but how often do we consider unconfessed sin as a factor?

 

Unconfessed sin takes a toll on our spirit.  There is an internal impact of sin that is embedded deep down inside of us.  It robs us of experiencing joy and rest in our souls.  We have all experienced unrest in our soul, and we can feel its literal impact.  But do we ever consider the root of soulful fatigue to be an unrepentant heart?

 

Take time now to look into your life, actions, and heart.  Do you have sins that you know are there, but you hide them from God?  Because of pride and shame, do you refuse to humble yourself and confess your sin before a loving and forgiving God?  Jesus rose from the dead to defeat that which causes us so much pain, fatigue and sorrow.  He’s waiting at the door of our hearts with arms open wide.  He longs for us to surrender our unrighteousness, humble ourselves, and confess to Him our need of forgiveness from the sins that plague us.  Will you allow God to free you today?