The Widow's Mite
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.
(1 Peter 5:6)
I must learn to take my rightful place as a Believer, and God has been teaching me this. As painful as it is, I thank Him. Strangely enough, it is a beautiful thing to be humbled in the sight of the Lord. To learn to quietly submit to His will. To bear every affliction without murmuring, repining, or fighting against Him. To be still under His mighty hand, under His rod, and to do so in such a manner that I do not despise His chastening. To recognize my vile, wretched state, in submission to a Holy God. To do so with quiet retrieve, with grace, and a broken heart has been something that God has been trying to show me. So often I plead with Him in my prayers, "God, I am a mere sheep! I scarce can see and faintly hear. I need you to open my eyes that I might see and open my ears that I might hear. Make yourself so bold and prevalent in my life that there is nothing that I can see but that which you are trying to teach me."
God showed up today. And I saw Him. In fact, I have been seeing Him, but failed to recognize it. Over the past few weeks I have seen Him manifest Himself in humility and grace through a beloved sister of mine. She has been a living example of 1 Corinthians 4:8-11:
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.
In the midst of a trial so gruesome and sickening that I scarce can breath at the thought of it, I have seen the enemy attack on every side. The darkness has grown darker and the heaviness has grown heavier. And yet, the countenance of the Lord has been her shawl. She continues to walk through this suffering with such grace and mercy, so much so that she is willing to publicly repent for things that have been long forgiven by the blood of Christ, and in many instances, never occurred. All for the sake of the Body and her desire to serve God at any cost. The humility and peace of Christ have been her adornment. She is a living example of the crucified life, in which we give up of ourselves, to the point of humiliation and scoffing, if only for the sake of the whole rather than the one.
If His hand be mighty to depress, it is also is mighty to exalt. The humbling of our very souls, the stripping of our very lives, to what appears to be as if there is nothing left, as painful as it is, is worth the agony. There is a very marked and defined reason that the scripture declares (Galatians 5):
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Crucifixion is nothing short of perverse. It is agonizing and painful. In looking at the crucifixion of Christ and the events leading up to His death, including the Garden of Gethsemane, the standing before Pilate and Herod, the scourging, the beating, the mocking, the spitting, the kicking, the carrying of the cross, and the very events that took place while being nailed to the cross, what Christ endured was nothing short of agony. And yet, the Scripture calls us to
crucify our own flesh. Something that is so blatantly powerful that we must literally mortify and torment it, agonize in great pain over it, and essentially murder it. The stronghold that the flesh has over our very souls is frightening. And yet one of the many outcomes of this act of murder is humility. The willingness to release the chains of bondage that the flesh entraps and allow God to take it. I have been blessed to see this more than once in my life. And yet, in God's mercy and grace He has once again allowed me to see the conquering of death through the crucifixion of the flesh, through a humble woman. A woman who very few will ever meet, very few will ever know her name, who lacks riches and fame, who lacks most of what the world esteems and chases after. She is a woman who has the spirit and willingness of the Widow's Mite. She came to Christ being able to offer very little, but what she does have she offers willingly and humbly. She is a perfect picture of one who is rich in spirit. One who can humbly say
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. I am blessed and honored to know her and to watch her lead by example.
.:La Chula:.
