Pride

I just wanted to take a minute and share what I feel God has showed me the past few days. He has actually been showing me for months but it has just all come together for me. I never really thought I had an issue with pride. I had in the past but lately I felt like I was starting to become more humble as Christ desires. Well, I might have been better but not to the point that God wanted me. I have noticed the past few times I have been asked to sing by myself in church I would always be sick. I just thought it was satan attacking so I would just pray and pray and rely on God to get me through and He would always be faithful. But every time I had a song coming up, the sickness continued. This time I couldn’t even practice I could just listen to the song just hoping I was learning it by listening. For three weeks I would hear comments from my kids like “Mom what is wrong with your voice”, “You sound horrible”, “You always have a frog in your throat”, “Go back to the doctor”, Dean-“I like this….you can’t yell at us”. I got a shot,tried antibiotics, allergy meds, vitamin c and herbal supplements, muccinex, you name it but nothing worked. My devotional yesterday was on pride and how the Israelites were looking for an external change when God wanted an internal change. But God has been using an external method to change me internally toward Him. How many of us get nervous? Come on be honest? Everyone at some point I am sure. Why do you normally get nervous? Because you care what other people think. When you care about what other people think there lies PRIDE. God taught me that as long as I am still getting nervous when I sing there is still pride in my life. So in order to take the nervousness (pride) out of my life He would take my natural ability to sing away by allowing me to become sick. I know this all sounds weird, but stick with me:-) How can I be nervous if I have no power or control over my voice. There is nothing I can do when I am sick, it is not about me or my abilities. I know that it is all up to God to do it for me and all I have to do is be the vessel and have complete faith that He will come through. And why wouldn’t He want to glorify Himself and draw people to Him? Thank you Lord for making me invisible today so that you could become visible. “Often Jesus wants to reveal important information to us, but our pride causes us to have preconceived notions that get in the way of our ability to hear what He is saying. Humility clears the pathway for us to hear God because it keeps us open to the way God wants to speak and move in our lives.” Pricilla Shirer