Psalm 18:27 “You save the humble”

This, Lord, is your requirement for salvation: humility, which can be defined as “seeing ourselves as you see us.” And humility’s prime characteristic is teachableness. Will we allow God to teach us or will we go our own way? Humility is also the doorway through which comes grace: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” When we are humble, admitting our need for a Savior, then God gives us grace. And what is grace? Getting the opposite of what we deserve.

As we stand before you, the Mighty, Eternal One, the Star-breather, the Galaxy-maker, the History Beginner and the Ender of time, the Pure and Powerful One, what can we do but see our sinfulness, our unworthiness, our puniness, and yes, our putridness. We see the immense contrast between our shriveled, rebellious hearts and the stunning beauty of your gracious Holiness.

To you we must bow in humility, accepting your view of our situation. Somehow you work with our will to bring the desire and the decision to surrender, to reject the illusion of independence for the healthy reality of total, healthy dependence on you.

This is the paradox of life: to be free we have to be dependent on, surrendered to you, to Truth, Love and Life. What a wonderful God you, Lord Jesus. May I honor you in my life today.

More from my autobiography

In the summer of 2005 while we were in the States, Pastor Paul, the pastor in my home church in Connecticut, challenged me to begin praying for revival, both for myself and for the church. I took up his challenge and added this to my prayer list.

The word “revival,” brings to mind exciting times of growth and expansion: changed lives, better relationships, spiritual passion, people coming to the Lord, church growth.

However, as I began to pray about revival and to look at instances in Scripture, it began to dawn on me that revival was more about the revelation of sin, repentance and making things right with God, with myself and with others. This was not an experience that was warm and fuzzy, exciting or pleasant. But it was good, powerful and transforming.

In Isaiah 6:1-8 is a description of a personal revival. All the elements are laid out for us to see.

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  And they were calling to one another:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.”

Revival begins with a deeper revelation of God’s holiness. Seeing more of His purity, His greatness, His glory, His immensity brings a whole new shift in our perspective. We see this in Isaiah’s response, as he is brought to his knees:

“’Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.’”

Seeing more of God’s holiness results in becoming more aware of our own sinfulness. The light of His presence shines brightly to expose the darkness of sin in our old nature: in our thoughts, our motives, our actions.

This new clarity brings to the heart and mind not just a mild response: “Sure I’m a sinner,” but a deep realization of the horribleness of our rebellion against a holy God. We begin to grasp the terror of being a sinful person in the presence of the GOD Almighty who will judge our sin.

Revival has to do with having God expose our sins in powerful, overwhelming ways to bring us down on our faces before Him. Such awareness of God’s holiness will “undo” us—tearing away the natural perception we have of ourselves and moving us further into the realm of spiritual Truth.

But this is not the end; there is one more step in the process of personal revival:
 “Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

“With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ ”

This third aspect of revival is the process of grasping on both a deeper and higher level how much we are forgiven.  The exposure of how horrific our sin actually is, means we can more clearly see the greatness of God’s forgiveness. Such full forgiveness flies in the face of all logic, all legal understanding, all human thought and emotion. God has every right to condemn us—we are his enemies because of our sin.  Yet, He chooses to redeem and forgive us at great personal cost.
In a revival, the revelation of God’s holiness and our sinfulness enables us to grasp these great truths emotionally as well as intellectually.  In the midst of this deeper understanding of how much we are loved and forgiven, we are “redone,” transformed to be a more useful instrument in God’s hand. We can see this in Isaiah’s response to God’s call.

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’
And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ ”

Revival brings a deeper surrender, a greater usefulness, an increased spiritual stamina. Isaiah’s revival helped him join God and move through a whole lifetime of great difficulties and trials.

I believe that this was just the beginning for him; I believe that Isaiah had an ongoing revival, starting with this initial encounter with God. I also believe that God intends for each of us to have a life of ongoing revival.

Spring time! My favorite season, full of promise and hope. Every day the sun comes up earlier, every evening it goes down later. It is a reminder of the newness of Life that Jesus brought to us, and brings to us new every day.

The chores of winter have dropped off my list such as filling the humidifiers, checking the heater, keeping the doors to the bathroom and bedroom closed.

Life is easier with no more dark mornings, no more early darkness in the evening. The peep frogs are out, the Canadian Geese family has arrived on the pond. The daffodils have lifted their sunny little faces to the sky. The forsythia has shyly started to show its bright yellow petals and the lilacs have a touch of green on their branches.

The April afternoon sun now shines  down on us, burning away the memory of cold mornings. The temperatures are up in the 80s and  tomorrow I will wear shorts to work.

It is a season bursting with life, wiping out the greys and blacks of winter, leaving behind the frost and snow. Even the moon looks warmer at night.

Soon the trees will get their red aura, ready to burst into the delicate green of new leaves and then darken into the deep green of summer.

I like it when spring comes slowly, beginning with the soft green fizz of the first leaves on the wild rose bushes, moving on to the red sheen of maples, then the fine green of newly sprouted grace. Each step of spring bringing more and more beauty until the full sheen of summer emerges to overwhelm the softness of Spring

Yes, this is my favorite season, a gift from God, and I am enjoying it immensely, giving thanks to Him that He loves beauty and shares it with us. I hope you are, too.

Psalm 18:20 “The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;”

[O Lord, praise you that you deal with us according to the imputed righteousness you have given us in Christ, not our own–for I have none. You would have to condemn me instantly to Hell if my goodness were the measure. But praise be to your glorious name that you have made me to stand before you in your all-cleansing righteousness: forgiven, transformed, accepted, adopted, dearly loved!]

“according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.”

[My sin-stained hands are now washed in your blood, cleansed of guilt, purified in forgiveness and empowered for good. Praise you, Lord Jesus, that you see me as your dearly loved child, delighted in, cherished and deeply cared for. The cleanness is there because of your great work.]

Psalm 18:21 “For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I have not done evil by turning from my God.”

[By your grace, by your power, by your obedience, Lord Jesus, I am counted as having kept your ways. What my old nature could not do in that it is weak, you did in your power. And you, Heavenly Father, despite what I am, have qualified me to be a partaker in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of Light.]

Every new day is the opportunity to follow you, Jesus. Help me to live in the light of your love, Lord, and choose to do what is righteous rather than what my old nature prefers. Thank you that you have given me everything we need for life and godliness. May your Spirit rule, your Name be exalted and your heart rejoice.

Psalm 18:19 “He brought me out into a spacious place;”

[You don’t just rescue us, you bring us into a positive position, a superior situation, a wide and pleasant place with you. You are the giver of great good and abundant grace.]

“he rescued me because he delighted in me.”

[This statement, in my opinion, is the most important one in this passage. You, Lord, do not act just out of pity or obligation, but because you delight in us, your children. You see us in Christ: transformed, accepted and beloved by you! What an amazing, encouraging, faith-building, wonderful statement!

You are powerfully pleased that we belong to you, that we cry out to you, our Abba Father. You are not bothered, irritated or agitated by our coming to you. No, you are richly pleased, mightily happy, deeply delighted, for you have inexplicably made us the objects of your unending, deep and rich love. You have made us the apple of your eye, the delight of your heart, the object of your continual affection.

We do not deserve this–which is all the more reason to praise you for your wonderful, eternal, infinite forgiveness; for your unlimited, ever flowing grace; for your all-encompassing, deep love that gives us the opposite of what we should have gotten: a trip straight to Hell.

I will praise you now, today, and forever because you are worthy of all honor, exaltation and glory. You are the God who loves His enemies, who rescues those who deserve condemnation, who saves those who deserve defeat.

May your name be exalted in my life today and forever through surrender, faith, obedience and thanksgiving. Amen.]