The Bible is filled with good, solid lessons to learn from some of the most wicked people ever born. So, turn away from those beguiling idols in your life – instead, turn for help to Christ on his cross.
The Bible is filled with good, solid lessons to learn from some of the most wicked people ever born. So, turn away from those beguiling idols in your life – instead, turn for help to Christ on his cross.
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Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada here to share hope with you today.
And my hopeful story begins in the Bible with King Manasseh. Now, most people wouldn’t equate Manasseh with the hope of God because he was one evil dude. Although he was a leader in Israel, I mean, this guy threw infants on the sacrificial fire to appease pagan gods. He did many more awful things that I won’t go into here. But! After he was captured by the Assyrians, bound in shackles, and led away to Babylon by a hook in his nose, King Manasseh “humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.”
Now, we definitely wouldn’t want Manasseh’s experience, but we do want to be humble, right? So, it starts by uprooting all the “pagan gods” in our lives: a TV program we can’t live without or perhaps gambling or petty resentments or an overstuffed ego. Yet when we drive ourselves to our knees for the sake of our own sin or the sake of our marriages or friendships. When we give up addictive idols for the sake of our church or family, we often fail, and we turn back to those very idols we gave up. You see, because if we’re looking for humility, we don’t look to ourselves or how greatly we’ve missed the mark; no, we gaze at God. We seek his favor. We must do what Manasseh did. And 2 Chronicles 33:12 says, “In his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly, greatly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.” You see, Manasseh not only humbled himself before the Lord, but earnestly humbled himself before the Lord. Greatly. He did so seriously and intently.
To humble yourself before the Lord is to meditate on, brood over, muse upon, and consider the Lord and his greatness. An old Puritan, in “The Valley of Vision,” once wrote, “Let me never forget that the heinousness of sin lies not so much in the nature of the sin committed, as in the greatness of the person sinned against.” By the way, Manasseh was not only forgiven but reinstated as king of Israel. What an example of the enormous extent to which God will go to forgive. But remember that Manasseh humbled himself greatly. So, ponder the greatness of God today. Focus not so much on your sin as on the greatness of the Lord Jesus whom you have sinned against. And you’ll find yourself becoming slow to speak, quick to listen, praying more fervently, being patient with your children, thanking busboys at restaurants, pinch-hitting for the church nursery volunteer who usually does diaper duty, and sacrificing an extra hour of sleep in the morning for a more earnest quiet time. If you’re looking for humility, gaze at Christ. No, even more humbling, drag yourself to the foot of Christ’s cross. For it is there that pride is suffocated, self begins to wither, and humility begins to blossom. And why the cross of Christ? Because the spirit of humility is lavished not on the deserving but on those who consider themselves undeserving. And nowhere do we recognize ourselves as more undeserving than in the shadow of the cross.
The Bible is filled with good, solid lessons to learn from some of the most wicked people ever born. So, learn a lesson from King Manasseh and his pagan idols. They destroy your love for God – they do. Jonah 2:8 says, “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.” So, turn away from those beguiling idols in your life – and we all have them. And turn for help to Christ on his cross.
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