The rough road on the way home

Dears in the Lord, greetings to you in the precious name of our Lord JESUS, The  CHRIST.  

There are times when GOD allows His own to walk through the path of humiliation which might seem a mystery in life. Fear not! God cannot abandon those who are His own. The word of God emphasizes us to be humble-hearted(humility) but facing humiliation? 

Humility and humiliation are two different things. however, Humiliation serves as the measuring scale of your humble nature and also the training ground that develops that humble nature in you.

Proverbs 18:12  “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.”

Here the word of God says before honour comes humility. The word does not say after humility is honour. There is a meaning in arrangement of words. The word above stresses on honour than humility by putting it in such a way. This means that God’s heart over His children is to honour them but when God is determined to do that, He uses the path of humiliation to prepare them for the honour that He is focused upon.

In Genesis 15: 13,14, we see God revealing His plans to abraham who was still childless. The plans were not only that he would have a child,  but that his fourth generation would become slaves in a gentile nation!  

When abraham prayed to God to bless ishmael, God said, 

  Genesis 17: 20,21  “ And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 

But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. “

And the Lord did bless ishmael and made him a nation and raised up twelve princes out of him which sounds similar to the twelve tribes of  israel, but the above verse clearly differentiates that isaac and his descendants were the ones that had the covenant flowing through their generations and not ishmael. Yet the bible tells us how the ones with the covenant were under the hard bondage for 430 years. 

In Genesis 28: 10-15, we see how the Lord blessed jacob promising that He will be with jacob, wherever he goes, while jacob was running to his gentile uncle who would deceive him someday. Moreover, the Lord did not ask jacob to leave from his uncle’s house any time before twenty-one years of hardship! 

We see how esau and jacob were blessed with possessions that the land could not hold them together, but only jacob had the covenant and not esau. Yet the bible tells us of the humiliation jacob and his descendants (israel) went through. 

On the other hand we also see the same God who allowed slavery,  bring them out and the God who blessed jacob while he ran to padan-harram, also bring him out of that place.  There could be so many reasons for why God had allowed humiliation in their lives which if unveiled, I am sure we would praise GOD for His marvelous works attesting to His righteous acts exhibiting His incomprehensible wisdom. We also see how through all these humiliation, The God of abraham, isaac and jacob never forsook them and has been faithful in  fulfilling  His covenant to this very day!  

If you are serving this same God and are in the path of humiliation that you don’t understand. Please be reminded that your God loves you and He  delights in blessing His people and not in humiliating them. If such a God of yours would allow humiliation in your life, then rest be assured  that it is good for you, significant for you and also that you are in the middle of something and not at the end, for the end can only be glory! 

What should I do while I am in the path of humiliation? 

• At any time ask and be open-hearted to receive correction from the Holy Spirit 
• Don’t blame yourself unnecessarily (that is what the enemy wants, to steel your joy, to make you loose focus, to weaken your hands, to slow you down and make you inefficient). 
• Never ever blame others (if you find yourself blaming some-one, ask God for His all-sufficient grace to overcome). 
• Refuse to believe the lies and fears that comes based on the lies which comes from the enemy.
• Shift your focus onto God’s word and His plans revealed to you. 
• Be senseless! (don’t look at your situation using your senses as the world sees), Be spiritual (esau or the edomites possessed mount seir, similarly moabites possessed moab and also the ammonites possessed ammon before isarel possessed cannan. but because israel possessed cannan after them all, they were not the last rank holders, they in-fact ranked first). 
• Have faith (without doubting God’s love for you) and Thank God knowing He is good all the time and that He perfectly knows what He is doing and where He is taking you and that your situation is in His control. 
• Be patient and forgive people who might wrongly judge you in ignorance for what you are going through. 
• Wait! 
• Rebuke thoughts of self-pity (statements like: poor me, good for nothing), self-justification (don’t encourage thoughts that tells you that you don’t deserve this humiliation for however righteous you are, you are a sinner without Jesus) and  stop trying to give an explanation to the people to justify yourself. 

Finally, I would like to remind you of the humiliation that Lord Jesus walked through. 
 
Matthew 20 :17-19 
 
And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, 
 
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, 
 
And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.  

But Jesus endured it all, knowing who the Father is!

And this is called faith: knowing who God is (knowing the truth) and holding on to it at all times(times of humiliation including). 
 
Hebrews 12: 1,2 
 
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 
 
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 
 
1 peter 4: 12 
 
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:” 
  
Therefore, child of God, do not be discouraged. 

Run! you are a winner.
 
God bless you.

God’s Love Missions family.