My title for this devotion is Lower vs. Higher.

Today it happened like so many other times. No, I didn’t get into trouble…yet. 🙂 No, it is something much better.  I’m sure you have probably had it happen too. You read the Bible and something clicks. You realize you are reading about yourself. Please let me explain.

My first reading this morning was from Jeremiah 2-4. First, I had to wade through the conviction that the Jews (and me) were trying to make life on their own and had committed two evils (2:12-13). Please take the time to read it. But what really got me was the incomplete repentance of Israel and Judah. What I mean by that is they were sorry for what had done; said so; but then failed to change. True repentance involves change, a turning around. How often has my repentance been incomplete?

That often comes from a failure of humility. A failure to see myself as needing to lower myself. In Luke 14:7-11 Jesus tells a parable of the wedding feast. In short: He says it is better to start lower and be moved up than to take a higher seat and be asked to move down. He finishes with these words: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Who is a better picture of that than Jesus? He humbly placed himself under human rule. As a human He exposed himself to all we face-weather, physical, abuse, political, all of it-to come down. But we also know as He humbled Himself He was also exalted to the highest place, the highest name, the highest seat, the highest position. Nothing in His life would make one think He was the King of kings. But His humility is evident. He wanted no pomp and circumstance. I mean…He rode a donkey not a Beamer!

A lesson for me to learn: take the lower place, not the higher. Don’t seek to elevate myself.

“Father, Jesus was the epitome of humility. He showed it as no one else did. May I follow His example and take/seek the lower seat.”