Before......... - Proverbs 15:33

You know one thing that most people are not very good at is waiting. The modern times that we live in are not helping this innate trait either.

The average wait time for the service agent to take your call is going to be 6 minutes.  The person in the express lane at Walmart CLEARLY has more than 20 items!!!! The lights have just turned RED and you are already running late. All of the elevators are everywhere but where you are waiting!! You wont get a table for 30-45 minutes.

Honestly, we can wrap our lives completely around the axle just because we have had to wait minutes. A few hundred seconds. Our heart rates will go up. Our toes will tap and we will invariably glance at our watch or Blackberry at least once while we wait.  It's crazy. We're crazy (personal opinion).

There are some good things that everyone would like to have in their lives; a good job and a comfortable salary, we would like to have the 20% down payment for that dream house, we would like to have the way that the Lord has mapped out for our lives made plain for us, we would like to get the Gifts and Promises that we read about in the Bible.

Know that the promise is really only somewhere near the end of the process. We have to make room in our heart and inner life for the promise. We have to unlearn the things that will rob us of our ownership.  We must understand what the promise or the gift is for. We must understand what our role as possessor of the promise or the gift means to us, to God, to the world. These things all take time and that's when the frustration begins (it only begins with waiting).

The Bible plainly and clearly instructs us in this verse that BEFORE we can know Glory, we must face and accept humility.  Understand that we cannot seperate these two states. Glory and Humilty are near cousins just as Mercy and Truth are.  "Why" is always going to be the wrong question to ask if you want to make progress in the attainment of His most precious promises.  Go ahead and ask though and get ready to wait longer.

Before honour is humility.  The verse gives the idea that these two places or states are not seperate, rather they are points along a spectrum.  Humility can mean a lot of things to different people. God has a very special appreciation for the humble.  The humble are not afraid to acknowledge that they are needy, poor, weak, afflicted (by pride and selfishness), and they are lowly and meek.  These are not new ideas to the believer but they are secret strongholds that keep us back from the very best that God has in reserve.  It would be foolish to say that we are not holders of these groves and high places set up to ourselves.  They have to come down.

Ken Blanchard said that, "Humility doesn't mean that we think less of our selves, it just means that we think of ourselves less". True!!  Think of the prodigal for a moment. Try not to focus on the rioteous living and squandering of his fathers living.  Think of the hours spent in the mud with the hogs. Think of the personal persecution that this young man must have laid on himself day after day. Then think of that day and moment when he said to himself, " I am who and what I am! If I can just be a servant in my fathers house I will have improved my living state more than I can now imagine.  I will go to my father and tell him I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Let me be a servant in your house only."

Before honour is humility. The path to a robe that was appreciated. To a ring that was valued. To a seat at the banquet table was prefaced by a complete and utter breaking down of the groves and high places of self worship.  I personally believe that the reason that this young man asked for his inheritance was because of a really, really bad sibbling relationship. Everyone was excited to hear that the prodigal had returned except one person, the older brother.  That's probably another devotion isn't it?

The Church is more than promised to be the place of the miraculous manifestation of God. It is the expected platform where God can display his providence and divine plan for using the weak to confound the wise. Believe me; healings and prophecies, and everyday demonstrations of the gifts of the spirit are true examples of God's glory on desplay (and his Glory he will not give to another).  If we will be the vessel then before glory there is humility.

Bring the humility God.  Send your searching eye through out the lands of my life and point out the groves, altars and high places and I will burn them down. I will not leave one stone upon another. They are an abomination to your name and every memory of them must be purged.  We are weak and needy. We have allowed these things and we cannot remove them without you Lord!  Cleanse to the utmost and then allow these clay pots to be holders of your Glory and show it strong!