Time to Fall

"The arrogance of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in the loftiness of your dwelling place, who say in your heart, who will bring me down to earth?' "Though you build high like the eagle, though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down," declares the LORD" Obadiah 1:3-4 (NASB)

We have all heard it before; pride is wrong and is a snare. But even more than that it is a reason for God to "bring you down". In Obadiah the Lord is talking about Edom and how the people there feel as though they cannot be beaten. Their hearts are filled with arrogance, and even more, are filled with arrogance when it comes to beating and persecuting God's people. But I love what God says, "I will bring you down.". It makes me want to laugh but also tremble in terror. God humbles the arrogant, that is easy to understand and that is why I want to laugh at God's statement; God will humble them and I already know He will. I get to have that insight when I see those arrogant people, but what terrifies me is that I can be an arrogant person that God will have to humble. And trust me, humbling doesn't feel good at all. It is embarrassing and painful. It feels like a demolition of your soul.

Every once in a while I find myself in those situations. I get humbled and it hurts, but it feels good because you know that God is working on you and that you will be better for it after. And what hurts most is when God uses the people that are close to you when He does this. For me it's usually my mother or girlfriend. The people who aren't afraid to tell you that you suck sometimes. I have come to learn that being open to humility and the trials that bring it is something we all need to be. I think it is actually a good thing to be humbled, right? But even more to look for those opportunities to be humbled as well. Do you know what I'm saying? For example, every so often when my girlfriend and I are just talking we will ask each other what are we doing wrong? Asking each other where can we do better, what have we done to hurt each other. Now if you know me you will know I HATE being wrong. Even at an early age I hated it. But one of the biggest lessons that I have come to learn, and still struggle with, is that fact that I'm not always right. So it hurts when she tells me what I have done wrong. I don't like being wrong but even more I don't like hurting her and hearing that I did humbles me a lot. God and people have shown me this time and time again.

When God exposes your arrogance it is not pretty. It awful and hurtful but beautiful and needed. If you find yourself being like Edom and thinking that your high place is safe, just wait, God will bring you down. Strive for humility, strive to place God first. An easy way to remember this is that at the end of the day one little mistake, one thought, one wrong motive, anything, and you deserve to die. Simply, God is holy and deserves perfection, which you can't give. EVER. So arrogance has no place in your heart, only holiness.