(This is from my new book 31 Letters to the Church on Discipleship.)
Dear Confessing Church,
A humble heart is the key to experiencing the grace of God. One of the first books I read as a new Jesus-follower was C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. One of the chapters is called "The Great Sin." What, I wondered, could that be?
Lewis said it was pride, or self-conceit. Pride is the complete anti-God state of mind. Francis Frangipane calls pride "the armor of darkness." As I read Lewis, I am sure I agreed with him. I am also sure I did not realize how much pride I had in me.
In 1993 Jesus gave me a lesson about pride. It began with a dream.
One night I dreamed I was driving a tour bus in the Smoky Mountains. The roads were curved and twisted. I could barely get the bus around the corners. Then, after an exceptionally sharp curve, the bus came to a cliff, with a deep drop-off. That's when I woke up.
The dream shook me up inside. Nevertheless, I eventually lost sight of it and went through my day. When I came home in the afternoon Linda had bought a card for me. She sensed I was struggling with things in the church. When I opened the card and saw the cover, I was stunned. It was a drawing of a road, twisting through mountains, that came to a cliff that dropped off into nothing. How could she know? I had not told her, or anyone, about my dream.
God was trying to tell me something! I decided to take some praying time. I opened to a devotional book I was reading. It was on James 4:6: God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. It was like God took a bright highlighter and lit this verse up for me to see.
When I drove to pick up my boys at school, I arrived early, and went into the gym. I walked around the gym several times, repeating James 4:6. While doing this I felt led to fast from food until God revealed the meaning of the dream to me.
Two days later, the revelation came.
I was driving to a leaders meeting at the church building. I was praying about James 4:6, still stunned by the dream and the card Linda gave me. Another Bible verse came into my head - Proverbs 16:18 - Pride goes before destruction; a haughty spirit before a fall.
That's it! God was telling me if I don't get rid of pride in my heart, I will take this church for a fall.
I felt relieved, and joyful. Every warning God gives contains a rescue. I shared the entire story with our leaders. None of them disagreed. This was another important lesson in the School of Jesus. Humble disciples experience the outpouring of God's grace.
A humble heart is one that is good soil for God's Spirit to plant seeds of renewal in. A humble heart is teachable. Humility is the foundational attitude for spiritual transformation.
May this attitude be formed in you.
Love,
PJ
DECLARATIONS
Lord, if there is any conceit in me, remove it.
I have a teachable, trainable spirit.
I am growing in humility.
My constant prayer is, more of Jesus, less of me.
