What is Jesus Saying About Us

As promised, I now share this disturbing experience, which left me totally aghast and completely turned into myself, when I heard what was going on. I was in a group of people who all believed in Jesus, Christians, who were all energetic and professed witnesses of the Lord. A brother in Christ was speaking about another believer with whom he had a disagreement and was telling us about it. He was speaking about the other person being self-righteous and wanting everything to be done according to that person. Our brother in the Lord was obviously upset, his voice becoming more intense and raised, as he spoke about the other person.

I listened and the words of this brother took a different direction and dimension, as he spoke and even after he had spoken. Our Lord suddenly opened up the flood-gates of truth about myself and I saw me in light, which I never saw for myself. It is so much easier to see the other person and make sweeping judgments, yet not see oneself. Straightway, these words of our Lord came rushing to the forefront of my mind. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eyes and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7: 3 – 5.

Honestly, when I heard what was being said, saw how blind and utterly clueless this brother was about himself, I really became afraid. He had absolutely no clue of the ‘plank in his eye’. I mean, I immediately asked our Lord to forgive me and help me. I saw the utter poison of the self in action. I heard the haughtiness and arrogance of evil pride, and shuddered. This was no joke. I was dead afraid and the main reason was this. As I looked before me, I saw a bother in Christ, who was blind, totally blind to the truth about himself.

Am I also blind about the truth about myself as a Christian? Am I seeing in others what I am failing to see in myself? What is our Jesus saying to me and showing me about myself? What is our Jesus saying to you and showing you about yourself?

This week has been dedicated to the self, the self that must be denied, the self that is the stronghold and refuge of all that is detested by our Holy and Righteous God. Our selves, as they are, are our arch enemies and the opposing enemies of our Triune God.

Jesus told this to all His disciples, all who were listening to Him. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9: 23b KJV. Jesus made it abundantly clear that self and being His disciple, do not go together. When you deny something, you literally die to it. You give it no power, no credence, no life and no part of your living. It simply does not have place in you. The self must be denied, because it hoards and grows all that is not of God. It is a never ending source of self-righteousness, selfishness, pride, haughtiness, self-centeredness, self-lifting, hypocrisy and self-aggrandizing. If Jesus has said that self can be denied, then we must believe and depend on Him to help us do so. Self will never assist you in denying self. Without the miracle working help of the Holy Spirit, we will forever be trapped and imprisoned by the powerful self in us.

As has been stated, the devotion this week will be personal, where each one of us is being dealt with individually and personally. This week’s meditation is specifically for all of us who are imprisoned by self and need to know how our Lord is working to free us in these crucial moments.