WHEN NOTHING IS ALL WE NEED

Last night in the jail i was blessed to spend an hour with ten new friends who were doing their best to count their blessings.  One of them was thankful that his court appearance had been rescheduled, because he’d been scheming to pick a fight with the judge.
 
“So you’re grateful to walk in humility,” i replied, offering him more grace than his words deserved.
 
How often has Jesus done similar things for me!  For almost fifty years Jesus had pounded on my door, while i had acted like nobody was home.  But on the day of my salvation i finally opened the door and found in Him the humility i could never have mustered on my own.
 
This man was at a similar age, in a similar process.  Not exactly the same, because he loves to fight, while i don’t.  Last night the bully in him smelled the pacifist in me, and wasted no time attacking it.
 
“Jesus ain’t no pacifist!” he sneered.
 
“Jesus said that He didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword,” i nodded.
 
i wished that i had added that the weapons Jesus fights with are not of this world, and carry divine power to demolish strongholds that keep us from knowing Him.  But that verse didn’t come to mind.
 
Love, joy, peace, patience and kindness - these are what Jesus fights with!  When He lives that way in us, His enemies are destroyed; our kindness pours burning coals on Satan’s head!  These thoughts also only came to mind in the middle of the night, while i was pondering all the things i could have said, but didn’t.
 
i did manage to say that Jesus’s victories are very different than the world’s.  When He died He won, and His resurrection proved it.  And now He is raising Himself from the dead in us!
 
“Jesus isn’t dead!” my friend sneered.
 
That one really threw me for a loop, because it’s true.  Maybe he understood the gospel better than i did, i mused.  Only later, in the middle of the night, did i remember that Christ was in certain respects entombed in each us, as He was in his own grave, until the appointed hour of our resurrection.
 
“Why couldn’t i bring those thoughts to mind, last night while i was in the jail?” i wondered.
 
“It wasn’t My will,” the Father said, reading my mind.  “I didn’t want you to be right.  I wanted you to be nothing.”
 
That hit me like a ton of bricks, yet still took awhile to sink in.  As i ponder it now, i realize that it reflects a couple of things His Spirit did lead me say last night.
 
“Although Jesus was in very nature God, He made Himself nothing.”
 
Because my friend was itching for a fight, i had also read
 
When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats.  Instead, He entrusted himself to Him Who judges justly.  1 Peter 2:23
 
And that, as it turns out, was how Jesus had opted to live last night in me.  He didn’t want me to defend myself or what i believed; each time that man cut me down in front of the others, He wanted me to turn the other cheek and bear it.  i wanted to speak wise and persuasive words, but He wanted me to respond in weakness, fear and trembling.
 
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.  1 Corinthians 1:25
 
It didn’t concern God that i did a poor job of quoting that verse last night, i now realize, because He wasn’t really leading me to speak it, but to live it.
 
“Last night turned out exactly as I had envisioned!” God beamed.
 
My friend didn’t need another sermon; he needed humility, and that’s what Jesus smeared him with, through me.
 
And so was fulfilled something that had been spoken over me, a year and a half ago
 
God will do way more through my humility than my heroics.  Christ’s humility and meekness in me will rout strongholds in others.  If i love and forgive lavishly many will be drawn to me, but i must walk in extreme humility and meekness for them to be drawn to Jesus.  My weakness is more inspiring to them than my strength.  3/18/23
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