Author: Dr. Michael Johnson

I hated to admit it so I just kept on driving. I even picked up the pace to prove my point. I was not going to admit I was lost nor that I had noticed I had missed the well- marked exit. I was hoping my dear wife would fall asleep and I could make a U-turn and make up lost time.

Pride is an invisible sin. When it becomes apparent it is still tough to try to conquer. When I think I have it under control, I take pride in the fact that I have done so.

My pride I can’t see. My humility I shouldn’t see. I have it in reverse, so I just keep driving and hoping she will fall asleep. I brag about my humility. I deny my prideful spirit. God doesn’t sleep during this trip. He notices my persistence in prideful sin.

Pull over and say I am sorry. You are right. I was wrong. We are heading in the wrong direction. Let’s do it your way God.

Proverbs 16:18-19 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. KJV

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. NKJV

I shouldn’t see you before I see you. That’s what I wanted to tell her. She came into the office and sat in the waiting room. What should have been a skirt looked more like a napkin. A very tiny napkin.

But she was not concerned. In fact she was proud to be revealing what only God, her mother or a spouse should see. Flaunting her body as the beautiful asset it was seemed as natural as the breath she took…, away…,from those who gawked at her…., like me.

But wait a minute. I am the doctor here. So when the Medical assistant announced: “the doctor will see you now” I was thinking of responding “He already has”.

It seems as if some women of today are lacking mothers, morals and mirrors. Perhaps this is an oversimplified and very biased, judgmental statement. But as a physician I am supposed to say remove your garments and put on this paper robe. I feel like saying, please put on this robe to cover that face cloth, or napkin or whatever it is.

Well I am getting older and it may just be that it is really time for me to retire. However, I still believe that women who display modesty in their attire in public are the most attractive.

I shouldn’t see you..,, until I see you.

Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that fears the Lord , she shall be praised. Proverbs 31:30 KJV

Borrowed feelings are like borrowed clothing. I can slip out and out of them very easily. So I borrowed his feelings. I pretended for just one moment to feel as he felt. That way I could record it in my mental notebook as another good deed done.

This was a nice mental selfie of me standing next to a man who would just as soon remain unnoticed because he was used to being unacknowledged. Then once the pretend shutter of the camera in my mind had opened and closed, in an instant, I shed my pretense of empathy.

I wore this borrowed shirt, this sense of moral outrage and Christian compassion, just long enough to impress myself that I am a good person. Usually I rush pass these begging bums on the street, fearful that they will ask for the $5 I have in my pocket. I could easily give them $10 or even $20 without noticing it. But since they don’t give change, I won’t pull it out so I can give the single $1 I feel they deserve. After all they would waste that in a way worse than I would waste it on myself.

Wait a minute. I do have some coins in the bottom of my pocket. Ooppsss! He dropped some of them and the light has changed. Gotta go. Don’t hold up traffic.

I notice them, I just don’t acknowledge them. Borrowed feelings are easier than borrowed clothing to remove.

Proverbs 21:13 He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor Will also cry himself and not be answered.

A reading of Psalm 125 without a look at the current geography of the nation of Israel would leave one to believe that Mount Zion is an actual set in stone place. It is true that we can actually point to a site that is presently designated as Mount Zion. However, according to the very trusted (???) source Wikipedia: The name Mount Zion referred successively to three locations, as Jerusalemites preserved the time-honored name, but shifted the location they venerated as the focal point of biblical Jerusalem to the site considered most appropriate in their own time.

In other words, their view of this depiction of the holy mount shifted with time. So when the Psalmist wrote Psalm 125: 1-2 “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever”, he had not read Wikipedia.

He was unaware of what the future would hold as far as political entities and nation states. He knew only one thing for sure. Though mountains may shake, they don’t move. Though volcanoes may blow their tops even implode, they remain where God has planted them.

God is our immovable mountain. We are swept along with events, the seasons and fashions. Wikipedia will define what is culturally normal today as what is right. And in the next millennia, next century, next decade or next week will define another shift in what is socially and morally acceptable.

God is an unchanging, unmoving mountain. If we trust in the cultural shifts as found in the Wikipedia oracles of the day, we are like the scepter of the wicked…. That the righteous use their hands for evil (verse 3).

We have a God who is un-moveable and unshakeable. The living God is moved with compassion, not fashion. He surrounds us and protects our hearts and minds even when it feels we are alone. We feel this un-moveable mountain only when we; trust in mount Zion.

Prayer

Father help us to trust in you and know that you are moved with compassion to protect us from the evils that surround us in this day as we grow closer to you. May we know without doubt that you will do good through us and in us as we desire to be upright in heart v.4

The phrase “God helps those who help themselves” is a popular motto that emphasizes the importance of self-reliance and self initiative. However, nothing could be further from the truth. God does not delight in self reliance. He takes pleasure when His children feel defeated without His presence. He enjoys our dependency on Him not just as a resource, but as the actual source. In other words we seek Him not just to find provision, but as the actual provision itself. We don’t need more of this or that. We need more of Him.

That is the setting of Psalm 124. It is the Psalmist declaration and affirmation that without God, we may as well give up. We are defeated not just by the enemy without, but the enemy within. Our victories of the flesh bring with them pride and a sense of being better than our foes. Our victories in Christ bring with them a sense of humility and thankfulness that God has done marvelous things in our lives. We praise our Father and tell others to look at Him and take their eyes off of us.

Our failures in the flesh bring a sense of worthlessness, and frustration. Self dependence is an anathema to God. It is sin because it tells God we cannot and dare not rely on Him. He is untrustworthy. I must worry and figure this out for myself.

The truth is God helps those who cannot help themselves. That is those who totally rely upon His grace and love rather than their own strength and cunning. That does not mean God helps those who will not help themselves. We are required to show up for the fight. But once we are on the battlefield, or in the boxing ring, the fight is fixed. The battle is won.

Psalm number 124 encourages me to stay on the battlefield because the fight is fixed. The battle is won even though the enemy refuses to leave the field of battle. It is not for me to figure out how to win. I am not called upon to be successful nor even a cheerleader. I am just called upon to stand my ground and acknowledge the Savior is victorious.

Prayer

Father help me to resist the temptation to run from the battle in fear or stand in self reliance. Help to acknowledge that You alone are my strength and shield and that without Your presence any fleshly victory is defeat.

Psalm 124:1-3

124 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say;

2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us:

3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: