If you go to a church where God’s word is faithfully preached and God-centered scripture filled songs of praise are sung, then it is like entering into a feast every week.
The Proud vs The Humble
The biggest factor in how much you’ll enjoy and gather from the feast is how hungry and thirsty you came. Now that’s humbling. And it should be. A proud or arrogant heart shouldn’t expect anything from the Lord. It would actually be odd to think it should gain a thing. A proud heart has no need for God. It doesn’t want what’s being offered. An arrogant person approaching the Lord’s table is like two magnets with the same polarity trying to touch. A proud heart thinks it deserves praise (though it knows better than to say that out loud.) When it comes to the table of grace, put together by the only one worthy and deserving of praise, it will surely repel!
A humble heart is not so. It knows its need. It’s what prompts Paul to say, “Not that we are sufficient in ourself to claim anything as coming from us” (2 Cor 3:5). A humble heart has a strong attraction to the feast of the Lord. It races to be satisfied in the Lord.
Jeremiah 17: 5-10.
Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Draw Near To Me
As we know, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5). It’s safe to say by the strong language of Jeremiah that God repels the proud man. But “draw near” to God and he will draw near to you. (James 4:8, 2 Chr 15:2, Lam 3:57, Zech 1:3, Mal 3.7, Luke 15:20).
Turning From Sin
Knowing that our sinful nature is prone to trust in the flesh, we need to be frequently repenting and going to the throne in humility for forgiveness. Like the magnet, the heart that turns from self will find that when he draws near the throne of grace the repulsion is gone, and not only that, is being drawn in.
IAN WEBSTER
If you have any questions about the topic of worship or would like to learn how to get involved with the worship ministry of North Avenue Church you can email Ian at websterian11@gmail.com.