IT'S A HUMBLING JOB, BUT SOMEBODY'S GOTTA DO IT

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. (2 Corinthians 12: 8)

Paul had a problem, a major problem.  He called it a thorn in his flesh.  We don’t know for certain what this “thorn” was, but it was bad.  Paul called it a messenger of Satan.   It buffeted Paul.  (Buffet means it beat him down.)   Three times he went into extended prayer, begging God to take it away. 

God had saved Paul from shipwreck, preserved him from stoning, delivered him from prison, and neutralized the venom of an island viper that bit Paul beside a campfire.  But this thing----this thorn in Paul’s side---- God refused to remove it.

In fact, it was God who sent the thorn to Paul in the first place.    

Now why would God afflict His personally called apostle to the Gentiles with a thorn in his flesh? Why would God afflict His most prolific New Testament author with a messenger from Satan to beat him down.

Paul confessed the reason:  lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations.

Paul had a problem with pride.

Sometimes he got full of himself.  Just skim through 2 Corinthians and look at all the times and ways that Paul used the word boast or its translate equivalent.

Paul found it hard to humble himself.

So God did it for him.

For Christians, especially for Christians called to a level of extraordinary service, God DEMANDS humility.

But He offers a choice in the way we acquire humility.

We can (a) humble ourselves

if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face (2 Chronicles 7: 14)

Now when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance. (2 Chronicles 12: 7)

Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18: 4)

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.  (James 4: 10)

Or (b) God will do it for us.

People shall be brought down, Each man shall be humbled, And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled (Isaiah 5: 15)

And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  (Matthew 23: 12)

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” (James 4: 6)

Paul taught a lot of spiritually correct things about humility and esteeming others better than ourselves (Philippians 2: 3); but Paul wasn’t good at practicing the humility that he preached.

Paul didn’t do a very good job of keeping himself humble, so God sent a thorn in the flesh , a messenger of Satan to do it for him.

You and I have a choice.  We can learn from Paul’s experience or we can share in Paul’s experience.

Something to think about the next time you assume that your story is the most important story they'll ever hear.

Something to think about the next time it's has to be cheating, or nepotism, or racism, because it's impossible that anybody was actually just ---- better.

Something to think about the next time you walk into a room thinking how blessed these people are to have YOU there.

Humbling you is a dirty job, but somebody's going to do it.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can help support this ministry by clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE: Proverbs 29: 23

Proverbs 29: 23     A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.

Proverbs 29: 23. To succeed you need CONFIDENCE that is equally yoked with HUMILITY. 

You know that this is worth doing, you know that you can get it done, but you know that you can’t do it alone. 

You know that failure is a real possibility, but you won’t let incremental failures stop you from pressing toward ultimate success.   

You’re not as smart as you thought you were, but you can and will learn everything you didn’t know you needed to know when you first started.. 

There are other people just as/ more gifted than you.  O.K., so you’re going to meet them and bring them onto your team. 

You aren’t entitled to anything, not even the thing you want most; so you can’t just claim it, you’re going to have to earn it or create it.    

Confidence tied to humility is leads to success.

Once you taste success, be careful that you don’t keep the confidence and lose the humility.  The remainder after losing humility is PRIDE.   And pride will take you down faster than the jealousy of haters and the fickle shift of circumstances. 

Pride makes you forget that what you attain is based on what you do not who you think you are.

Pride makes you think that you deserve success just for being you. 

Pride makes you think that you built this --- by yourself, that you put this thing together --- alone, that by the might of your own arm you established your empire (Daniel 4: 29-33).

Pride turns you from all the people and practices that got you to where you are.  You become “a different person,” a dumber person.   In the worst cases, pride takes such a strong hold that you continue declaring your own worthiness even while you fall down, down, down to rock bottom.

Keep confidence tied to humility.  Confidence is what you say to yourself when you fail.  Humility is what you don’t say about yourself when you succeed.

Confidence is what you see in you.  Humility is what others see in you.

Don’t let confidence become unequally yoked without humility.

If you are the only person who thinks you’re humble, then you’re not.   If you feel the need to remind people how humble you are, then you aren’t

If you do not regain a genuine perspective of humility, you will soon suffer the ravages of runaway pride.

And that will suck.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Proverbs 29: 23

Proverbs 29: 23     A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.

Proverbs 29: 23. To succeed you need CONFIDENCE that is equally yoked with HUMILITY. 

You know that this is worth doing, you know that you can get it done, but you know that you can’t do it alone. 

You know that failure is a real possibility, but you won’t let incremental failures stop you from pressing toward ultimate success.   

You’re not as smart as you thought you were, but you can and will learn everything you didn’t know you needed to know when you first started.. 

There are other people just as/ more gifted than you.  O.K., so you’re going to meet them and bring them onto your team. 

You aren’t entitled to anything, not even the thing you want most; so you can’t just claim it, you’re going to have to earn it or create it.    

Confidence tied to humility is leads to success.

Once you taste success, be careful that you don’t keep the confidence and lose the humility.  The remainder after losing humility is PRIDE.   And pride will take you down faster than the jealousy of haters and the fickle shift of circumstances. 

Pride makes you forget that what you attain is based on what you do not who you think you are.

Pride makes you think that you deserve success just for being you. 

Pride makes you think that you built this --- by yourself, that you put this thing together --- alone, that by the might of your own arm you established your empire (Daniel 4: 29-33).

Pride turns you from all the people and practices that got you to where you are.  You become “a different person,” a dumber person.   In the worst cases, pride takes such a strong hold that you continue declaring your own worthiness even while you fall down, down, down to rock bottom.

Keep confidence tied to humility.  Confidence is what you say to yourself when you fail.  Humility is what you don’t say about yourself when you succeed.

Confidence is what you see in you.  Humility is what others see in you.

Don’t let confidence become unequally yoked without humility.

If you are the only person who thinks you’re humble, then you’re not.   If you feel the need to remind people how humble you are, then you aren’t

If you do not regain a genuine perspective of humility, you will soon suffer the ravages of runaway pride.

And that will suck.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE: Proverbs 29: 12

Proverbs 29: 12     If a ruler pays attention to lies, all his servants become wicked.

Proverbs 29: 12.  You are going to get lied to.  And, if you are in any position of leadership, influence, or perceived influence, you are going to get lied to ------- a lot.

Sometimes, while the liar is lying to you, everyone else will know that the liar is lying----- but they won’t tell you.  They’ll  wait to see how you respond. 

If you discern the lie and act on the truth---- you can develop a culture in which honesty is the preferred policy.  If you act on the lie, you’ll create an atmosphere in which lies are rewarded and (consequently) honest people are unwelcome.

But if you think about it, when leaders act on a lie it isn’t usually because the leaders were tricked, but it’s because the leaders were scared.   Afraid to question the story.  Afraid of checking the facts and facing their own assumptions/ insecurities.    Scared of hearing more than one side of the story because the other sides might reveal inconvenient truths.  Most of the time leaders accept lies at face value it’s because the leaders are afraid that by checking into the story they  heard, they’ll look uncertain, out of control, or weak.  That’s pride.  That’s fear.

Pride and fear make leaders susceptible to lies.   Leaders who function from pride and fear have subordinates who function through pride and fear.  Thus, corruption.

The only people who are afraid of looking like they aren’t in control are people who aren’t in control.  The only time someone’s scared that asking a necessary question will make them look stupid is when they’ve been too stupid to ask the question when it first became necessary.  If you are a leader who can’t handle the truth about your organization then the truth is---- you can’t handle leading that organization.

People are waiting to see how you handle liars because that’s how they’ll decide whether or not to be liars. No, it shouldn’t be that way, but that’s the way it is.

But truthfully, even at your best sometimes you will be deceived.  Sometimes, you will get tricked. So here’s what you do to immunize yourself against the effects of deception:  Always, no matter what you hear, no matter what you think the facts are---do right and do right by people.

Always.

Maybe So-and-so is out to get your job.  Maybe not.   Treat So-and-so fairly regardless.  Don’t withhold rewards when due.  Don’t look the other way when reprimand or correction is proper.

Maybe Such-and-such doesn’t like you.  Maybe he/she does.  Treat Such-and-such right regardless.  Listen to Such-and-such as attentively as you listen to any of the others.  Weigh the merits of the ideas not what you think you might know about Such-and-such’s feelings.

Humble yourself  and you take care of pride.

Seek the truth even when it makes you uncomfortable and you nullify fear.  Consistently do right and consistently do right by folks and you cancel any benefits the liar hopes to gain.

That’s how you keep from lies from controlling you and your team.

Or, don’t.

Just keep on believing the first thing you hear.  Just keep on shrinking your circle to a small crew of people who know just how to tickle your ears.  Just keep on believing whatever lies let you stay out of situations in which you feel uncomfortable or less powerful.  Keep on and one day you’ll look up to find that all the honest folks have left you and you’re surrounded by a pack of liars.

Just imagine how much safer you’ll be surrounded by a pack of liars?

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116