Exalted

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” ~Mat 23:12 HCSB

Jesus is confronting the religious leaders.  He recognizes them as leaders, but tells the crowd not to be like them, “Don’t do as they do, because they do not practice what they teach”.  He goes on to say how they burden the people with rules and want the best for themselves.  The leaders crave attention, they bask in the limelight.  But Jesus rebukes them for this.  He tells His followers not to be called teacher because you have one Teacher.  Don’t let people call you father of master, because they have one Father and one Master who is in heaven.  We are to live as servants, humble servants.  

Where is your heart?  Many people are religious and they want to be called Christian.  In fact they will boldly advertize it on their car, tee-shirts and a host of other things.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to these things, but I would ask why you are advertising.  Is because you want people to look at you differently, praise you?  When you are in church do you boast about how religious you by the way you speak and act so others admire you.  Any times we exalt ourselves above others, and take away from Christ.  It is in our nature to want to exalt ourselves and we have to be constantly on guard, because nobody is immune.  We are to live lives that are humble.  To do this we have to be Christ centered.  We should test ourselves by comparing ourselves to Christ.  We survey the cross and the work of Christ and it should bring us to our knees. We must remind ourselves of who we are and this should be built into our everyday lives.  Reading our Bibles, praying and serving others humbly should be what sets us apart from the world.  Show me a heart that is centered on Christ, humbly serving Him and I will show you a Christian and people will know it, because Christ will make it known.    

Lord help us to remain in You.  Help us to live humbly in light of You, in light of the cross, in light of You shedding your blood.  In light of You rising from the grave, in light of You saving us.  Apart from you we are nothing and we praise Your name and humble ourselves before You.  Lord may you be glorified in us! Amen