After talking about transformation, Paul told his readers one way in which we are to be transformed. This daily devotional looks at how grace transforms disciples from pride to humility.
Nuggets
- Because grace and faith are gifts from God, we should be humble.
- It was God’s choice to extend grace to us.
- God’s grace helps us transform from pride to humility.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the Transformed to Perfection series
Well, this devotion didn’t go at all as I had planned for it to go. I changed the title a couple of times because it wasn’t following my outline.
It was following God’s. Let me show you what He gave me.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Grace Keeps Us Humble
“For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one” (Rom. 12: 3 CSB)
Because grace and faith are gifts from God, we should be humble.
Okay. Let’s start out by getting Dictionary Chick out of the way first in case someone isn’t aware of what we are talking about.
- Grace is a free and unmerited gift from Heavenly Father given through His Son, Jesus Christ that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.
- Faith is the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives.
- Humility is a character trait that diminishes pride and places dependence on God while holding a modest view of our importance with respect to others.
God Gives Us Grace
It was God’s choice to extend grace to us.
Mankind rebelled against God. He could have chased out Adam and Eve, locked the Garden gate, and made them go the rest of their lives alone. He didn’t do that.
In fact, God did one better. He elected that mankind would receive the free and unmerited gift of grace. This enabled Him to offer the Plan of Salvation to us.
If you have not admitted that your relationship is not right with God,
have not asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior,
and have not confessed your sins,
please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
We are not entitled to God’s love and forgiveness. He did not have to design the Plan of Salvation or even offer it to us.
God wanted to because He wants to get back to having the hands-on relationship with all of His creation. But we have to accept it.
By following God and keeping His laws and commandments, we gain salvation, eternal life, grace and mercy. That is why Paul could tell the Romans “for by the grace given to me …” (Rom. 12: 3 CSB).
Yes, we can give grace to others. “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4: 29 ESV).
To me, the building up means we are to assist people on their Sanctification Roads. We are to “… make disciples of all nations …” (Mt. 28: 19 CSB).
Sanctification is the process in which the transformation occurs. It is the process of transforming our nature to be more like God’s. We complete that process when we seek God.
Transformed to Humility
God’s grace helps us transform from pride to humility.
We all struggle with pride. For some, it is an off and on deal. Others, it is more of a daily struggle.
Seed gave a good lesson on pride.
- Our happiness comes from pleasing sensations and agreeable thoughts.
- Humility comes when we consider our knowledge and skills are given to us by God for guardianship.
- Pride comes when we forget God and worship ourselves instead.
Resource
There are many things that can elevate our pride. But really, we can do nothing except that God has given us the knowledge and skills.
But Paul is admonishing everyone of his readers — including us — “… I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think …” (Rom. 12: 3 CSB)
Pride is an extreme on one side of the continuum. God calls us to be sober and even keeled – the other end of the continuum.
Glossary
But pride isn’t the only extreme to which we go. Tyson hit the nail on the head. He said gave the spectrum of responses of people not exercising sobriety.
- Prideful people would probably be dissatisfied with the work God calls them to do because they feel it is beneath them
- Those with low self-esteem would be terrified with the work because they feel they are inadequate.
Resource
We have to control our thoughts and allow God’s call to come through. “… Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one” (Rom. 12: 3 CSB).
You would think that we would have a pretty good idea of who we are and what we can do. But, no. It doesn’t always work that way.
Beecher said that we either have “… an idea shaped according to good rules and through right influences, or [one] casually left to chance feeling.”
Resource
Part of the think sensibly is the ability for us to evaluate ourselves and our relationship with God. We’ve talked about evaluating ourselves before.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Beecher reminded us that this evaluation can’t be based on what pleases us. Neither can we only evaluate some elements and neglect the other elements. We can’t evaluate only the good and positive aspects and ignore the negative aspects.
Instead, Beecher wrote, “It is where the spiritual elements dwell in man, at that point where he understands and touches the divine, that you must measure him.”
Resource
Seed said that we have to make sure we are comparing apples with oranges. When we look only at the best of ourselves and the worst of our condition, we aren’t getting a true picture. Jortin contended that we make up qualities, magnify qualities, and misrepresent qualities.
Resource
We have to particularly watch when we evaluate ourselves by comparing ourselves to others. We can also make up, magnify, and misrepresent their qualities as well.
Vaughan reminded us how difficult this evaluation is because we are so close to ourselves. We argued that we cannot see ourselves clearly.
We have to watch when we compare ourselves to others.
While we have to evaluate how far we have come, it is also detrimental to compare ourselves with the old us. If we are growing as we should, the evaluation will highlight areas in which we need to continue our work.
We have to watch comparing ourselves to what others think of us. There are times, if I compared myself to what my BFF thinks I am, the real me would be the low self-esteem one.
I told you that I am a fake-it-until-you-make-it girl. What I intend to be may not be what I should be, though. We have to follow God’s Will.
We have to realize we have to evaluate the good and the bad. We can’t just work on the good and ignore the bad. We will always have issues that might become big issues one day.
A faulty evaluation of ourselves may jeopardize the work God has for us to do. It can stop us in our tracks at times.
Resource
We can keep our pride in check when we evaluate ourselves against God’s standards. We not only don’t meet all of the standards, but we also don’t meet any of the standards.
Oh, there are some we do okay on, but not all of them. And we are just okay.
Jortin’s discussion also included ambition. He called ambition “… a desire to obtain the rewards, which we think to be due to us.” I think it is interesting that he tied a bit of entitlement to the concept of ambition.
Resource
When we think of ambition, we think of developing goals so that we can elevate our reputation and esteem. We are trying to raise our socioeconomic status while — sometimes — we are looking to gain power.
We need to be ambitious in transforming ourselves to where God wants us to be. We need to give up worldly ambition.
Given a Measure of Faith
Tyson defined the measure of faith as “… the confidence which a man has in Christ, and in himself by the grace of Christ, that he has competent ability for service.”
Resource
We are given grace and faith. That gives us the credence that we can rely on God to transform us from a prideful person to an humble one.
Making the Connections
The two major themes of this devotion were evaluation and character.
- We need to evaluate whether we are in God’s Will or not.
- We need to be humble.
Lyth told us the benefits of self-knowledge.
- Eliminates pride
- Replaces it with humility
- Focuses on God
- Obtained through grace alone
Resource
How Do We Apply This?
Many times, disciples wait for God to call them to work for Him. We forget that He is also calling us to “… prompt, earnest, humble service in that which is close at hand.”
Resource
The work is already there. We need to start at Jerusalem — wherever our Jerusalem is.
We just talked about all the different all the different worksheets I’ve created over the last two years. Here is a link if you want to check one out.
Worksheets
We need to keep in mind that we are changing to imitate God’s character. We are transforming to perfection.
Father God. We want to transform to be like You. We know that You are Sovereign God, and we are broken and sinful. We humbly come to You for salvation, regeneration, and transformation. Amen.
What do you think?
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