" How Do You View Yourself ? "

 

Romans 12:3  "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as GOD hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."

     People have a tendency to think of themselves more highly than they ought to think despite the godly and timely admonition from Paul: "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly . . ." We also should take to heart the weighty word from a Plymouth Brethren writer by the name of Henry Dyer who said, "Ever regard yourself as worse than any you may at any time address."

     Do you remember the prophet Isaiah's response to his vision of "the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and HIS train filled the temple" (Isaiah 6:1 pictured above) ? As he gazed upon the LORD and the seraphim's cried to one "another, and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts," Isaiah's simple but heartfelt reply was, "Woe is me ! for I am undone" (Isaiah 6:5 pictured above). The Apostle Paul said that of "sinners . . . I am chief (1st.Timothy 1:15). He realized what he had been in his unsaved state before salvation: "a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious" (1st.Timothy 1:13). Paul considered himself to be "the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the church of GOD" (1st.Corinthians 15:9) and "less than the least of all [the] saints" (Ephesians 3:8). Job, in response to GOD's probing questions, answered with a humble and contrite response: "I have heard of THEE by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth THEE. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5-6). "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of GOD, that HE may exalt you in due time" (1st.Peter 6:6). We are sinners, all, in need of GOD's grace. May this always be our view of self. JED

Your servant in CHRIST,

Julie

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