Welcoming the Uncomfortable Work of God
Of all the pursuits that come with the Christian life, is any more constant, any more consuming, and any more difficult than the pursuit of humility? Surely nothing cuts harder against the grain of our natural, sinful humanity than to be humble before God and humble before our fellow man.
Yet God calls us to display humility. He warns that he opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So how do we become humble? Or, to say it another way, how do we humble ourselves? Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it! Give me a course I can take, a list I can check off, a procedure I can follow, and I’ll keep at it until I’m properly humble! But as David Mathis points out in his new book Humbled: Welcoming the Uncomfortable Work of God, such an attitude is all wrong because it elevates us too much. “In contrast to this attitude, the humble-self theme in Scripture turns our human instincts and assumptions upside down. Yes, this is indeed a biblical directive. And at the same time, it’s not something we can just up and do. We cannot humble ourselves by our own bootstraps.” There is no simple plan to follow, no course to take, no step-by-step procedure. That’s because …
… we humans are not the drivers of our own humility. Our God designs the humbling way in which he forges the virtue of humility. He takes the initiative. He acts first. Our humility happens on his terms. He sees. He knows. He moves, with sovereign, omnipotent, meticulous care. He is intimately engaged with his created world and with each of his creatures. He is the one who humbles us with his mighty hand, and when his humbling hand descends and we’re cut to our knees or flat on the ground, then the question comes to us: Will you humble yourself and embrace God’s humbling hand, or will you try to fight back?
Will you receive his humbling providences, or attempt to explain them away?
Will you soften to him in humility, or harden with pride?
True self-humbling is not our initiative, but it does require our doing as we learn to welcome the uncomfortable work of God.
That uncomfortable work, and our response to it, is the theme of Mathis’s book. In its eight brief chapters he offers a study of the Bible’s humble-self language. Specifically, he follows the lead of the “humble-self” texts “for what we might discover not as much about humility in general, though that’s not unimportant, but specifically (and practically) about what it means to pursue humility, and especially to humble-self, when God is the one who initiates our humbling, not us.”
So he asks first “How do I humble myself?” and explains how God humbles us through our response to his Word and his work. He shows the importance of providence, Scripture, prayer, fasting, and local church fellowship in God’s working out of our humility. He explains how we can think less of ourselves and think of ourselves less. He shows how most ultimately, humility is the means through which we admit to ourselves, to others, and to God himself, “I am not God.” In that way, it is “a posture of soul and body and life that acknowledges and welcomes the godness of God and the humanness of self.”
All-in-all, Humbled is as helpful a book as you’ll find on the essential but oh-so-difficult task of becoming humble—of responding appropriately to God’s pursuit of our humility. I highly recommend it.
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A La Carte (May 2)
The God of love and peace be with you today.
Westminster Books is offering a discount on two new books by the much-respected theologian Vern Poythress.
I added a heap of new Kindle deals yesterday and have a few new ones for today as well. We are spoiled!
(Yesterday on the blog: Climb a Mountain, Swim a Sea, Fight a Dragon)This may resonate with parents. “Almost every time I open up social media, I’m bombarded by parenting influencers telling me the best ways to care for my child. Apparently swaddling is bad now. Who knew?! I can’t scroll through my feed without being confronted by ads for must-have baby products that are “backed by research” and happen to be designed to perfectly fit an Instagram aesthetic. I didn’t realize even our burp cloths needed to be performance-ready for an online audience.”
How much power does Satan have? Is Satan omnipresent? Bruce Ware provides excellent answers to these questions and others.
This was an unexpected yet thought-provoking answer to the question from Bill Farley.
Chris Hutchison describes the path away from pornography. “Of all the things I get to do in ministry, few bring me more joy than helping men break free from pornography. I love seeing someone come alive as the stupor of sexual slavery loses its hold on them and they begin to live in the light.”
Bryan Schneider grieves the contemporary erasing of friendship. He suggests some reasons why friendship has fallen on such hard times.
Fittingly, this tribute to David Livingstone comes from someone who lives in Zambia, the country where Livingstone spent so much of his life (and where he ultimately died).
I’m familiar only with Christian books so will keep my comments focused on that small corner of a much larger industry. From my perspective, here’s a look at how Christian publishing works.
It is better to fail in the eyes of the world than to succeed without the Lord.
—Collin Hansen -
A La Carte (June 2)
Good morning from beautiful Villarrica, Chile, where I’ve settled in to record the next episode of Worship Round the World.
I’m quite sure you’ll want to grab this month’s free book from Logos. Several of the nearly-free books are excellent picks as well. This month they are also featuring Eerdmans which means lots of good commentaries are on sale.
There are a few new Kindle deals to look at.
(Yesterday on the blog: Coming Soon: Understanding and Trusting Our Great God)
The Symbolism of the Rainbow
What is the rainbow all about according to the Bible? Here’s a good answer.
The Worthy Work of the Stay-at-Home Mom
“‘What about you? What do you do for work?’ I’m just a stay-at-home mom. Have you ever found yourself in this situation? Struggling with shame over this title, even though you chose it so long ago with such joy and purpose?”
The Evil That Haunts Us
This is a brief but powerful reflection on the fiftieth anniversary of The Gulag Archipelago.
What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
This is such a common question. So you may as well read R.C. Sproul’s answer!
Why Do We Pray for Our President?
John Piper: “Paul’s foremost thought is not that these prayers are prayers for Christian advocacy. I think this is crucial. He’s not telling us to pray that civil authorities would become a conscious weapon of explicitly Christian promotion of the faith. He’s thinking about pagan rulers who remain pagan but still are influenced by the providence of God to bring about, in their limited godless framework, some measure of justice and peace and freedom.”
Social Media Is Causing Our Children to Suffer
Joe Carter covers a recent story. “The U.S. surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, has issued a warning about the potential risks of social media on children’s mental health. Here’s why Christian parents should be concerned—and what we can do to protect our kids.”
Flashback: On Caring for the Property of Others
Sin obscures the truth, it blinds us to our own flaws, it persuades us that vice is virtue and virtue vice. There is some of the hypocrite in each of us, some degree of blindness, some measure of unwillingness to see and know the truth.God uses sinners so that he will get the glory and so that he will get the glory in the vivid, repeating imagery of turning ashes to beauty. —Jared C. Wilson
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Approaching the Tomb with Joy
After a heartbreaking Friday and a sorrowful Saturday, a small group of women awoke early on Sunday. The first rays of the morning sun were just beginning to light the sky when they set out toward the tomb—the tomb where they had left Jesus’ body just two days prior. Each of the gospels tells the story for a slightly different purpose and from a slightly different perspective, but as we align the accounts we see that Mary Magdalene was there, probably as the leader of the little group. So was Mary the mother of James and two other women named Joanna and Salome. These were some of Jesus’ most committed followers—women who had cared for him and traveled with him from place to place. For the duration of his ministry they had loved him and served him. And now this morning they set out to love him and to serve him one last time.
As Luke transitions begins describing Sunday’s events, he says this: “On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb.” He also describes what they were carrying in their hands, and there is something strangely fascinating in this little detail—something worth considering.
Jesus had spent three-and-a-half years teaching the people who he was and what he had come to accomplish. One thing he had taught them was that, though he would die on Friday, he would rise on Sunday. He had told them that he would be delivered over to the people who hated him and that they would put him to death, but also that three days later he would rise. These women had heard all of this. They knew it. But somehow it didn’t sink it. Somehow they didn’t believe it.
How do we know? Because of what was in their hands. As they went to the tomb, they carried jars filled with spices and ointments—the kind used to anoint and prepare a body for its final burial. They were going to the tomb fully expecting to find a dead, decaying body.
Of course from our vantage point in history we know that they would not find a dead, decaying body. In fact, they did not find a body at all! They found a rolled-away stone, angel guardians, and an empty tomb. They found their minds shocked, overwhelmed, and bewildered—shocked, overwhelmed, and bewildered even though Jesus had told them exactly what they should expect. Jesus had said, “On the third day I will rise.” The women said, “On the third day let’s go and complete his burial.” Jesus had said “On Sunday I will be alive.” The women said, “On Sunday let’s care for his corpse.” They didn’t believe it. They didn’t believe his promise.
And just as these women failed to take God at his word, so can we. In our deepest sorrows we can neglect his promises, in our darkest valleys we can ignore his assurances. He promises he will never leave us nor forsake us, yet somehow we can be shocked when he does not desert us but instead stays close beside us. He promises he will work all things for good, yet somehow we can be surprised when we see him bringing blessings through our sorrows. He promises he does not break a bruised reed or snuff a smoldering wick, yet somehow we can still be baffled when he carefully tends to our wounds and lovingly dries our tears. Somehow we are surprised when God does precisely what he has promised he will do.
In that vein it is worth asking: What should these women have brought with them on Sunday morning? Not spices! Not ointments! Not the stuff of mourning and death and burial! They should have brought food and streamers and instruments and all the stuff of celebration! They should have approached that tomb with faith, with confidence, with expectation. They should have approached it with belief that it would be empty, with faith that Jesus was going to do exactly what Jesus had said he would do.
And what was true in their lives is true in ours. What was true in their sorrow is true in ours. What was true in their bewilderment is true in ours. We live best when we live with the assurance that God will do nothing more, and nothing less, than what he has said he will do—just as he did on Easter.
