Daniel 4 True Faith: Faith Bears Fruit Pt. 2

Notes
Transcript

Intro

Are you proud?
And at first you might think, No. I’m not proud. And I hope not!
But here’s the thing. Pride is so embedded in our culture, we don’t even recognize it when we see it.
Sure we recognize it in everybody else.
Someone is is arrogant and treats other’s poorly. Someone who thinks of themselves as above everybody else.
And that’s definitely a form of pride. But there is a type of pride that is even more nefarious than that.
It might not look arrogant to anyone else. They might never think we are proud.
But on the inside, in the heart, there’s a kind of pride that leads to death.
So instead of Asking are you proud? Let me ask it this way. Who are you living for? I mean who are you really living for?
Are you living for yourself? For your glory?
Is your life all about you where you follow God, but you have the final say over what you do in your life and what your life is all about?
Or is it God?
Pride is so engrained in us, that humility has become a lost art.
And I don’t mean the kind of pride that has to do with other people.
I mean the kind of pride that has to do with God.
First things first. Humility is about God.
True humility says not to us, but to your name be the glory.
It says all of our life, good and bad, is God’s and we live to glorify Him.
And this true humility is a fruit of true faith.

True Faith Bears Fruit

That is what we have been looking at in Daniel 4.
In Nebuchadnezzar’s redemption, God gives us a picture of how he redeems every broken Adam by His sovereign grace.
First we saw that our faith is a gift. We do not will ourselves to believe or choose Christ.
We are dead in our trespasses and sins. Slaves of our sin so that even in a hundred million lifetimes, worse than that, an eternity of lifetimes, we would choose our sin over God’s grace every single time.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9).
But that doesn’t mean we aren’t responsible to live a holy life. True faith bears fruit.
And last week we looked at the repentance of Nebuchadnezzar to see the fruit of a repentant life.
We worship God alone.
Repent of our sin and put it to death.
And we practice righteousness. Instead of living for our sin, we live to obey God.
This week we are going to look at the fruit of a humble life.
And here’s the take away I want you leaving with this morning...

True faith walks humbly before God to the very end.

In other words, true faith trusts God every step, every breath, every day, day after day until the Lord returns or calls us home.
Just like repentance, humility is fundamental to living a godly life.
The question is how? What does it mean to walk humbly before God to the very end?
We have two points today:
First…True Faith walks humbly before God.
And Second True Faith perseveres to the End.
Let’s start with point number 1...

I. True Faith Walks Humbly Before God

Daniel 4:34-35, 37 I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”... Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
These are the words of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.
Before these words, Nebuchadnezzar glorified himself saying Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty? (Daniel 4:30).
If there was one thing you could say about Nebuchadnezzar it was that he was proud.
In every way, Nebuchadnezzar made himself equal with God.
He lived for himself and his glory and even built a 90 foot tall statue and commanded everyone in his kingdom to worship himself and his glory.
He walked in pride before the Lord, and so God humbled him.
And before we start comparing ourselves to Nebuchadnezzar to exalt ourselves saying I’m not proud like that! What a sinner! Remember, all Nebuchadnezzar was was a broken Adam.
We are proud like that.
This is what we all do. Its all that every person has ever done since the Fall.
When Adam and Eve fell into sin, Satan tempted them by saying Genesis 3:4-5 You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
In other words, you don’t need God. You don’t need to listen to Him or live for Him. You should run your life.
You should be able to say for yourself what is good and what is evil.
Make your own commands. Live by your own rules.
And that’s exactly what Adam did. And that’s exactly what we do.
And all that sin is rooted in pride.
We think of ourselves more highly than we ought.
That our name deserves the glory. That our will should the highest authority over our life.
And so we live for ourselves.
But what does the Scripture say?
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 5:6).
Or like Nebuchadnezzar said, Those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

The Danger of Pride

Pride is something everyone struggles with. You might not put other people down or think you are best in the world at anything, but every sin we commit, at its core, is driven by pride.
Is driven by this idea that “I know best. I run my life. I don’t need God.”
That’s why God hates pride.
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
Pride and arrogance lead to an evil life. It leads to all kinds of sin, and all kinds of rebellion against God.
Because fundamentally, Pride does not fear the Lord.
A proud heart does not honor Him for who He is. It diminishes Him. Shrinks Him. It says God is irrelevant in my life. God is not worthy of all my life and all my glory.
Listen to how the great Reformer John Calvin said it. And you’re going to get a healthy dose of Calvin this morning.
God cannot bear with seeing his glory appropriated by the creature in even the smallest degree, so intolerable to him is the sacrilegious arrogance of those who, by praising themselves obscure his glory as far as they can. (Mahaney, C.J., Humility, 33).
This is why I think humility is fundamental to living a godly life. You can’t glorify God without it.
Otherwise, you will always be exalting yourself over Him and living solely for your glory and will.
Likes Psalm 10:4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.
Pride is functional atheism.
So what does it look like to walk humbly before God?
Before we get to that, we need to have a theology for a humble life.
Doctrine matters. What you believe effects how you live.
So what theology do we need for a humble life?
Three things from Nebuchadnezzar.
One: God is Good.
Two: God is Sovereign
Three: God is good.

Theology for a Humble Life:

1. God is Worthy

Daniel 4:34-35 I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing.
First and foremost, a humble heart sees God as the Most High, not ourselves.
As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says: What is the chief end of man?
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
You have to remember the context. Up until this point, Nebuchadnezzar saw himself as the king of kings and lord of lords.
And here he is, after being humbled, saying, I am nothing. God is the one who deserves all the glory.
My kingdom is nothing compared to His. I am nothing compared to Him.
That’s humility.
Its not saying I am nothing as in I’m a worthless piece of garbage.
You are made in the image of God. You are the glory of God.
What it means is, I don’t exist for me. I exist for Him.
In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
Our life is for Him and His glory not our own. He alone is worthy of all praise and worship and majesty.
And until we realize that, take it to heart, and bring that truth to bear on every aspect of our lives, we will always walk in pride, because every single thing we do will not be done to the glory of God.

2. God is Sovereign

Daniel 4:35 He does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?
God is absolutely, perfectly sovereign over every single detail of our life.
In everything, He perfectly accomplishes His perfect will.
Nothing is outside of His control.
Psalm 115:3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
And here’s the thing. We accept that as Christians.
We say “Of course God is in control! Of course, nothing happens outside of His will.”
And we believe that for the big things. For things “out there.”
We believe God is accomplishing His will in the world.
But its hard to believe those things when it comes to our life.
That God really is in control of our life. Not just the things out there.
We say it. We believe it. But if we were really honest with ourselves, we doubt it.
We doubt it when things don’t work out the way we hoped.
When someone gets cancer.
When we get laid off.
When it feels like our marriage will just never get fixed.
Or when we feel like that person we love with all of our heart will never come to the Lord.
Its hard to trust in those times.
But Jesus said Two sparrows are sold for a penny, and not one of them falls to the ground apart from God’s will (Matthew 10:29).
True faith in the sovereignty of God doesn’t just say God is in control in the big things.
Or that he’s in control in the good things.
True faith says God is in control of everything. Good and bad. Down to the smallest detail of my life.

3. God is Good

Daniel 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
If God was only worthy, and if God was only sovereign, than our lives might amount to little more than a cruel joke.
But the goodness of God is that He is good.
He is not some far off, uncaring spiritual being way out there in the cosmos with fish way bigger to fry than my own life.
He cares for us. He loves us. And if nothing comes into our life without first passing through His sovereign hands, then we can trust that whatever comes into our life is not meant to destroy us.
God does not hate us. Even when the things we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy happen.
Nebuchadnezzar praises God saying all his works are right and his ways are just.
Again remember the context. Nebuchadnezzar had just spent probably 7 seasons, almost two years, living in the fields like a wild ox under the judgment of God.
And Nebuchadnezzar comes and say all that hardship, all that pain, all that suffering that God laid on my life were perfectly right and perfectly just.
Its easy to believe God is good when life is good. But when we suffer, even if its suffering for our own sin, we wonder, but is He really good? Is He really wise?
God never does evil. In fact, He showers the rain on the just and unjust alike.
He is kind and gracious, when no one else would be.
And when we say God is good, we need to remember two things.
That He is wise.
He knows exactly what is best for us. Have you ever had something not work out the way you wanted it to only to realize afterward it actually worked out perfectly?
We need to believe that God knows what He is doing.
And second, we need to believe that what God is doing is right.
That whatever he is doing is perfectly accomplishing his will.
And that whatever he is doing is for our good and his glory.
Hear all the promises of Psalm 145.
The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made.
The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.
He is near to all who call on him. He hears their cry and saves them.
The Lord isn’t only good when our life works out the way we want it to. He is always good.
And true faith believes it.

Summary

So if we want to live a holy, humble life that glorifies God in everything, good and bad, we need a theology for humility.
We need to believe that God is worthy of all praise and worship. All of our glory.
That he is Sovereign, even over the smallest details of our life. Down to the sparrows and the hairs on our head.
And we need to believe that He is good. He is perfectly wise knowing exactly what we need, and His mercy is over all that He has made.
And here’s the trick. We don’t get to pick and choose. All these things are essential for walking humbly before God.
For seeing every aspect of our life, both good and bad, as for Him and for His glory so that we might praise His name.
All these things work together in unison. God is Worthy. God is Sovereign. God is Good.
That’s the foundation for living every season, every breath, every step for the glory of God.
Now finally we come to the question...

How Do We Walk Humbly before God?

Trust in the Gospel

First things first.
If humility is essentially saying “To God be the glory, in absolutely everything,” then you can never glorify God as He created you to until you first humbly come to Him for grace.
Faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith in His sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection is the first step in humbling ourselves before God.
You see, Pride says I don’t need the gospel.
It either says I don’t need to live for God and glorify Him because I am god! I don’t need to repent of any sin. I run my life. I live for me.
Or it says, I don’t need God. I don’t need his grace. I’m not that bad. My sin’s not that big of a deal. I can save myself through my good works.
Either way Pride blinds you to the gospel and will keep you from ever glorifying God like He created you to.
And because it keeps you from God’s grace in Christ freely offered in the gospel, Pride will send you to Hell where you will glorify God as a vessel of wrath instead of a vessel of mercy.
Proverbs 16:5 Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.
You were made to glorify God.
Your sin robs God of His glory. It says He is not worthy, holy, righteous or good.
But out of love for you, God sent His Son to die on the cross for your sins and rise again three days later.
That’s why Humility says Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25).
Its in the gospel, that for the first time, we say that God is worthy of all my praise, worship, and glory, and He rules my life. I live for Him because Christ died for me.

Live to Glorify God

Well, then what?
After we come to Christ, what does walking humbly before God day in and day out look like.
Because remember, I don’t want you to get lost.
When we talk about walking humbly, I’m not talking about walking humbly before other people.
That’s part of it, but what I’m focusing on today is walking humbly before God.
And that means living for Him and for His glory. That’s humility.
God is ultimate. God is worthy. I am nothing. I serve and worship Him alone.
So. If we want to walk humbly before God and live a lift that glorifies Him that means day by day, in everything, we need to live from a biblical worldview that says everything that happens in my life, is ultimately not about me.
Its about God and his glory.
My life is in His hands and nothing happens that God has not ordained to happen in my life with the sole purpose of glorifying His Name in me.
So good or bad, in everything, we receive what God has providentially determined to come into our life, and say “How do I worship God in this? How do I live, through this, to the glory of His Name?”
In Good Times
Its easy walk humbly and glorify God in the good times.
All it looks like is giving thanks to God.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Thanksgiving is the mark of a life that glorifies God.
Here’s how Calvin said it. “All the good things we have were created for us so that we might acknowledge the one who is their author, and might celebrate his kindness with thanksgiving.” (Calvin, A Guide to Christian Living, Banner of Truth, 116).
Every good and perfect gift comes from God, and the humble life recognizes that (James 1:17).
It sees every good thing we have as from the Lord out of nothing more than His love and grace.
And we aren’t just talking about spiritual things like salvation in Christ. It includes that first and foremost.
But it also include all the little gifts.
Our families. Friends. Simple joys like a cup of coffee or a beautiful spring day.
The godless go through life without ever giving thanks to God. Romans 1 talks about how they do not honor him or give thanks to Him. Why?
Because giving thanks to God is worshiping Him. It says God thank you for being so kind, good, generous and gracious.
The reason why God gives us good things is so that we would praise Him in return. And the humble life says everything I have came from God’s hand.
How good He is to me.
Psalm 136:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
If we are not daily, regularly giving thanks to God, we are functional atheists.
So how do we do that? How do we make thanksgiving a regular rhythm in our life?
Let me commend to you practicing what I call Evidences of God’s grace.
All this is is you stop, slow down, and say “How have I seen God working? How is God blessing me? What has he given me or done in my life?”
And then, you thank Him for it.
You can do this individually, as a family, small group.
Say your at the dinner table. And you ask what’s one thing we are thankful God has done for our family.
And everybody goes. And then you pray as a family and thank God for His good gifts.
This gets us into the habit of thanksgiving. It trains us to see how God is regularly working in our life so that we might give Him more and more glory.
That’s how we walk humbly in the good times.
In Bad Times
But what about the bad times.
What about the times where life doesn’t work out the way we think it should? Where we have to go through things we wish didn’t have to?
What about the pain and suffering of the bitter providence of God?
How do we walk humbly then?
Look at James 4:13-16 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Here’s the question. Who really runs your life?
Does God factor in at all?
This is so foundational. Our life should not look like people who say Well we will live and do this or that.
We should look like people who say, If the Lord wills.
Our life isn’t about us and our will. Its about God and His.
Again Calvin says “Instead of seeking the things which suit us, we should seek the things which please God and which serve to exalt his glory.” (Calvin, A Guide to Christian Living, Banner of Truth, 21).
That includes our pain and suffering.
This is where the rubber of that theology we talked about earlier, that God is Worthy, Good, and Sovereign, starts to meet the road.
Is our life really for God and His glory?
And is He really sovereign, and really good?
Then even the hard times come to us from the hand of God, to glorify His Name.
Isn’t this the promise of Romans 8:28-29?
Romans 8:28-29 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
What does God define as good for us? Being conformed to the image of Christ. Becoming more and more like Jesus.
And God works all things, good and bad, together to accomplish exactly that to the glory of His Name.
The question is, do we believe it? Because what typically happens when life doesn’t work out the way we want it to?
Do we stop and think what is God trying to teach me in this?
What is He showing me?
How is He growing me to be more like Christ and glorify His name more and more? How is this thing, this awful thing, serving His glory?
Or do we grumble. And do we complain. That’s the way of the world.
Paul said Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (Philippians 2:14-15).
Grumbling is the opposite of giving God thanks.
I’ll tell you what convicted me. Hear what Calvin said.
“No one, therefore, has properly denied himself who has not so resigned himself to God that he gladly allows him to rule him as he wills. People who feel this way will never think they are badly off, whatever happens, nor will they complain about their lot in life as if to make a veiled criticism of God. (Calvin, A Guide to Christian Living, Banner of Truth, 50).
Grumbling is making a veiled criticism of God.
Its saying God doesn’t know what He is doing, He isn’t good, and whatever I’m going through isn’t worth glorifying His Name.
Here’s what it comes down to. God is a Father. And as a Father, He disciplines us.
He uses things in our life, especially the hard things, to break off our sins and make us more like Christ so that we can better glorify Him.
That’s where the He is worthy comes in.
Or life is for Him. Not us.
But God isn’t just a Father, He is a good Father.
That means that everything He allows to comes in our life is not designed to kills us. It feels like it sometimes.
But this is where we need the theology that God is Sovereign and Good. That He is just in all His ways.
God is the prefect physician. Our suffering is never more and never less than exactly what is needed to accomplish God’s purpose.
As the Author of Hebrews says...
Hebrews 12:9-11 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
And walking humbly with God means we obey Him and trust Him that our suffering and His discipline really does serve His glory and is good for us.
Better than not enduring it at all. That’s true faith.
That we are patient under suffering trusting God knows exactly what He is doing.
Even if we face death, barrenness, cancer, the loss of everything, the Wicked Man, Calvin says will curse their life and hate the day they were born. They will blaspheme God and accuse him of being unjust saying “Why me?”
The Godly Man, on the other hand, will remember God’s mercy and fatherly goodwill. Even if everyone in his family dies and his house is empty, he will not stop praising God and blessing His name because God still dwells in His house and will never leave Him or forsake him (Calvin, A Guide to Christian Living, Banner of Truth, 52).
He will keep trusting saying with the Psalmist But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise (Psalm 79:13).
Because here’s the secret. Even the hard times are an evidence of God’s grace.
When Paul talks about the Thorn in his flesh, he says God gave it to him to keep him from becoming conceited. To keep him from trusting in himself and dependent on God (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
Now we don’t know what that thorn was, but all of us have felt. Something in us that just made us week.
That made us say, I can’t do this.
We’ve seen where pride and self-sufficiency gets us. Lost in sin. Far from God. Driven from the Kingdom to live like a wild animal like Nebuchadnezzar.
But here’s the simple grace of our trials and sufferings. They show us our weakness. They show us just how not self-sufficient we really our.
How much we really need God day by day and step by step.
Here’s what Calvin said. Unless we have tangible proof of our weaknesses, we immediately get inflated ideas of our own abilities. (Calvin, A Guide to Christian Living, Banner of Truth, 58).
And then here’s what happens. We stop trusting in God and we start trusting in ourselves. We say we don’t really need God and we can manage all by ourselves without His grace (Calvin, A Guide to Christian Living, Banner of Truth, 58).
And then we’re right back where we started. Broken Adam’s who think we know best.
Suffering is one of God’s greatest tools to keep us dependent and near to Him.
When we are weak then we are strong because God says My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).
Our suffering reveals God’s grace, but only if we don’t waste it.
Only if we walk humbly, otherwise all of our suffering all of our pain will be nothing more than bitter fruit.
But if we walk humbly, our suffering will preach to us that God is Worthy, Sovereign, and Good so that all of our suffering would result in the praise of God for His glorious grace.
Now, this is easier said than done. Suffering is hard.
Which if we want to talk about how True Faith walks humbly before God, we also need to talk about point number 2...

II. True Faith Perseveres to the End

This one’s quick.
Daniel 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven
The reason why we don’t know definitively whether or not Nebuchadnezzar got saved is because we don’t know how Nebuchadnezzar finished his race.
Did he follow and praise God until the day he died or was this just another false profession of faith?
True faith perseveres to the end.
Without perseverance, without holding fast to Jesus the rest of your life, you will not be saved.
Well I thought we were saved by God’s grace. We are!
But perseverance is the fruit of that salvation.
If you really have been saved by God’s grace, you will persevere to the end.
But here’s the thing. If you hope to persevere to the end, you will not be able to do that unless you learn to walk humbly before God.
That’s because how we endure suffering is the training ground for persevering to the end.
Learning to stay faithful and joyful in all trials no matter what comes our way prepares us for greater trials that might come down the road.
Look at Romans 5:2-3 We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. [That’s walking humbly. All our life is for God’s glory] Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.
Suffering, and specifically suffering well trains us to endure when the hard times come.
Trains us to stay faithful to God and live for His glory come what may.
James says the same thing. James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
The word perfect is the same Word Paul used in Colossians 1:28 where Paul labored to present everyone mature, that’s our word, in Christ.
So our trials, as burdensome as they are, should be a joy to us because they are helping us grow into maturity in Christ. They are helping us grow to glorify God more and more.
But only if we endure. If we are steadfast. Immovable. If we hold fast to our confession with out wavering.
Let me put it this way, how you endure suffering today is a picture of how you will endure suffering for Christ to the end.
If suffering comes into your life and you throw your hands up and give up, if you say I don’t really care about glorifying God right now I just want this to be fixed, what do you think will happen when renouncing Christ will fix it.
When the world pressures you to turn back, and all you have to do is say Caesar is Lord.
Or what about when the worst happens. What about when cancer comes knocking. How will you endure if all it took was a bad Tuesday to make you live in the flesh?
Jesus said faithful in little, faithful in much. The trials we face today, if we endure them with joy and faith in God, are producing in us steadfastness that is preparing us little by little to persevere in following Christ to the very end.
And only by persevering in the big things and the little things, good and bad, will we receive eternal life.
Hebrews 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
God’s will is that you endure.
And walking humbly with God means you follow His will, not your own.
If you want to persevere to the end, you must surrender all of your life, all of your hopes, dreams, and desires to Christ.
There is no other way.
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23).
That’s how you persevere.
Again Calvin said God has willed it so, let us follow his will (Calvin, A Guide to Christian Living, Banner of Truth, 82).
Every day you wake up and say God is worthy, sovereign, and good.
All my life is His. And everything I am and do is for his Glory.
And when the good times come you persevere in thanks giving to the Lord.
God thank you for this, and this, and this. Thank you for my whole life.
And when the bad times come you persevere by doubling down your faith and trusting every single step through that valley of death that God is with you.
That he really is worthy of your life and your pain.
That your suffering is making you more like Christ so that you would depend on Him instead of trying to make it through this life by your own strength and power.
That he really is sovereign.
Your life isn’t chaos. Every single detail has been ordained by God to make you more like Christ and glorify His Name.
Not a single thing will ever fall upon you that did not first pass through your heavenly Father’s loving hands, because in His sovereign wisdom, he knows what is best.
And that He really is good.
God is not trying to crush you. God is trying to show you His power and grace.
He wants you to realize your weakness so that you would stop relying on yourself and idols that can never save and turn to Him.
And because all of us are sinful human beings, we hear that and we immediately start to doubt.
We think of the worst thing imaginable, our worst nightmare. Never getting married. A spouse dying. Or God forbid, the death of a child, and we think I could never make it through that.
You’re right. You couldn’t. But here’s the good news. If that was God’s providence for your life, He would get you through.
That’s why we can rejoice in our sufferings. Every single one of them, every heart ache, every pain, every tear, shows us the glory of His grace.
When everything feels like its all going to crush us, God comforts us with his promise: I will never leave your or forsake you.
And through faith in that promise we can endure until the end humbly relying on God.

Conclusion

True faith walks humbly before God to the very end.

Walking humbly before God means, its not about us. Its not about our glory.
Its all about His. And however my life can serve His glory, that’s what I want to do.
Walking humbly before the Lord is ultimately about glorifying God. Living all of our life for His glory, and His alone.
And then, we do that every day until the Lord returns or calls us home.
That’s true faith.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
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