the valley

my little bundles of light

Yesterday was a day that left me sad, discouraged, and emotional.  It was just an all-around bad day (at least in American, first-world standards).  As a result, I barely slept last night and woke up this morning exhausted and still discouraged.  

I picked up Hinds' Feet in High Places and curled up on the couch.  If you've read it, you know there are devotionals on each page correlating with the storyline of the book.  This happened to be the devotional on my current page, and yes, I will type it all out because it is THAT GOOD and I want to share it with you...

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"Divine Humility"

Jesus never asks us to do anything that He has not experienced, and thereby sets our example.  Before asking us to humble ourselves in abandoning ourselves to Him, He first humbled Himself.

"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:5-8 NAS)

Jesus stooped even lower than man fell.  He laid down His Kingship so we might be released from our sins to live life with Him as we were created to live.

"And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed" (1 Pet. 2:24 NAS)

Lord Jesus, I choose to answer the call to go to the lowest place of all - the call to abandonment of self-giving. 

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I was at the point in the story where the main character realizes that it is in the valley of humility and self-abandonment where one experiences indescribable joy.

Now I felt even lower... but in a good way.

I let Jesus embrace me as I rested in all this.  That this is what He calls me to do.  To humble myself and offer grace and love when people let me down.  To empty myself to servanthood.  To live a life with Him, experiencing some of what He experienced and to welcome heartache and sorrow and persecution with open arms because they will make me more like Him.  To abandon myself and die.  To live as Christ, manifested in me.

I am more encouraged and more peaceful tonight.  I am finding peace within my suffering, and that is a beautiful thing.

Because His life in me is beautiful.