Humility

Today is Thursday, November 29, 2018.

Day 22,176

26 days until Christmas!

“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”
C.S. Lewis, Irish author, 1898-1963 Today is the 120th anniversary of his birth.
BrainyQuote

The word of the day is keek, “Scot. and North England. to peep; look furtively.”

There are not enough words to tell you how wonderful last night was. The Michael W. Smith Christmas show was spectacular. He is an excellent entertainer, as well as being a phenomenal musician, songwriter, and arranger. It was fun. We laughed. It was inspiring. We wept. It was worship. We sang. It was all I imagined it would be and more. He sang “old school” Christmas music, in the style of Andy Williams, Perry Como, and Bing Crosby. He and his absolutely amazing band of musicians played some stunning instrumental works. He sang some of his own Christmas creations. And he took us to church, sharing several of the songs from his Surrounded album, released earlier this year. In what was probably the highest moment of the show for C and me, he said that this song was his favorite song that he has ever written.

What is so special about that is that one of our traditions is to play the album that song is from while we decorate our Christmas tree. And that song, “All is Well,” has been our favorite of his for years. I wasn’t expecting him to do it last night, since the vocals are by a young boy in the original recording. However, he had a special guest, last night, Melinda Doolittle, a third place finalist from a season of American Idol. She sang the vocals. It wasn’t quite as good as the original recording, but it was still awesome.

I am very grateful to C’s boss for bringing us along for this experience. It was a great way to kick off the Christmas season. And, apparently, it was Michael’s first show on this tour. That was kind of cool.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL AND PRAYERS
All Scriptures are from the ESV unless otherwise noted

Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
Psalm 33:2

Today I am grateful for:

1. Michael W. Smith
2. C’s boss
3. Worshiping together
4. My voice, that I can raise in praise to my God
5. Another chance to bring Him glory today

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Revelation 21:3

(From Power in Prayer, Andrew Murray)
A Prayer for Humility

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”
Isaiah 57:15

“The secret of secrets is this: Humility is the soul of true prayer.” We don’t like humility. We don’t like to think about, and we certainly don’t like to ask for it. But we must have it, especially for our prayers to be powerful. “Until the spirit of the heart is renewed, until it is emptied of all earthly desire and stands in a habitual hunger and thirst after God, which is the true spirit of prayer; until then, all our prayer will be more or less like giving lessons to students: we will mostly say them only because we dare not neglect them.”

I needed this, this morning. I need to be living in a perpetual state of hunger and thirst for God and His Word, for the filling of the Holy Spirit, and for the “easy yoke” of the Son. That will be my prayer for this day.

Father, I pray the prayer that strikes fear into the hearts of men. Make me more humble; give me humility. Give me an unquenchable thirst for You today. Let me hunger for You. Show me the way. Teach me Your way, that I may walk in Your truth. And then light me up, that the world may see Your glory.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

Grace and peace, friends.