And He will lift you up

1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Often, while I am preparing dinner, my husband takes our three girls outside to the driveway to ride bikes and play basketball. Our youngest daughter, Jordan, thinks it is great fun to be lifted up by her daddy to hang on the basketball rim. One afternoon, before my husband arrived home from work, I took the girls outside to play. Jordan, age two, stood at the bottom of the basketball goal, stretching her arms up in a futile attempt to hang on the rim. Over and over, she jumped as hard as she could. She crouched down as low as she could, then propelled herself upward in an attempt to reach the goal. Her little feet never left the ground, but she remained convinced that she could reach that goal by herself. She carried on this way for several minutes, until my husband pulled into the driveway, walked over to her, and lifted her up with ease so that she could hang on the rim. She squealed with delight as her lifted her up and laughed hysterically while her daddy held her up to hang on the rim.

As I observed my daughter's actions, I saw a picture of myself in my relationship with God. Most of my life, I believed that if I just worked hard enough at anything, then I could achieve what I had set out to do. If I wanted to make good grades, then I studied hard to reach my goals. If I wanted to be a good tennis player, then I practiced a lot so that I could succeed. "If at first you don't succeed, try try again." And that is a great lesson when it comes to earthly principles. Unfortunately, though, when it comes to God saving us and changing our hearts, this principle no longer applies.

In my early twenties, when I began to seek God and study his word, I would certainly have told you that I was a Christian. After all, I was pretty good. I did nice things for people and believed that God made the world and that Jesus was a real person who walked this earth. But I had never visited the cross myself. Although I had heard the gospel many times, I did not understand what it truly meant to be a christian. I had never confronted the depth of my own sin and the darkness in my own heart. Therefore, I really had no need for a savior.

When the Holy Spirit began to confront me with my own sin, it was painful. Over time though, I learned that I would no more find salvation as a result of my own efforts and goodness, than my two year old would jump up and reach that basketball goal on her own. I would only find salvation through God allowing me to see the fallen nature of my own heart, and humbling myself by recognizing that only through the sacrifice of Christ could I be lifted up into God's kingdom and made a new creation.

The same principles have applied to the process of God sanctifying me and molding me into his likeness. He reminds me daily that only He can mold my heart and make me more like Christ. I did not save myself by my efforts, and I will not change myself by those efforts. In actuality, the more I strive to be better, the farther I will move away from God. I only see change when I humble myself under God's mighty hand, so that He can then take that same hand and lift me up in his palm. True change has only come from seeing how far I fall from his standards of holiness, forcing me to cling to him and depend on him more. If my two year old daughter had an accurate understanding of how far she really was from the rim of that goal, she would cease striving and depend solely on her father to lift her up. I am called to do the same.

That has been the "good news" in my life, that my heart is desperately sinful apart from Christ, but through God revealing that to me and humbling myself before him, He and only He is able to lift me up. It did not feel like "good news" in the beginning, because, like my two year old, the phrase, "I can do it all by myself," goes through my mind constantly, and the process of humbling myself was and still is painful and scary, but the ride up to that rim in the palm of his hand is filled with joy and delight, and there is incredible joy in hanging out there. I cannot hang on by myself, so I must trust him to hold me there. When I cease trusting and start striving, I tend to focus more on the weight of my own sin pulling me down than his hand lifting me up. I sink back down into old ways and habits, and forget the joy that is at the top, but He is always faithful, when I humble myself and ask him, to lift me back up in the palm of his hand. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time." 1 Peter 5:6