An Arrogant Christian is an Oxymoron

Ephesians 4:2 – Be completely humble, and gentle, be patient, bearing one another in love.

Arrogance is defined by Webster’s dictionary as “an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions”.  Additionally, oxymoron is defined as a “combination of contradictory or incongruous words (as cruel kindness); broadly: something (as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements”. Now let’s go a little further and define contradictory, which is stated as “a proposition so related to another that if either of the two is true the other is false and if either is false the other must be true”. 

Can you imagine what an arrogant Christian would look like? Me? You? Us? Hmmmmmm….There are so many components to Christianity, but arrogance is not one of them! Let’s examine three of the works that define a Christian: humility, gentleness and patience. 

Humility is the ability to realize and accept the fact that is not about you, never has been and never will be! To be humble means to accept your place as a servant, a servant first to the Lord and then to your brothers and sisters in Christ. We ARE not all that and a bag of chips! But what we are is unassuming, mindful of others, always willing to lend a helping hand and most certainly not having a high opinion of ourselves (Philippians 2:3). When we take that grand step of becoming a Christian, we put on a whole new set of clothes-love (Colossians 3:12-15) and start thinking with a new mind-love (1 Peter 3:8). 

Gentleness involves being kind to one another.  As humans, we can be so mean and evil at times; we can cut each other to the bone with our words and actions. We simply forget, or just don’t care how painful it is to be mistreated, and some of the things we do to one another would bring tears to even the resilient. I can imagine that Jesus was faced with the evil that men do, but his kindness was limitless and he exhorts us to learn from His ways (Matthew 11:29). The Apostle Paul tells us that we must pursue gentleness (1 Timothy 6:11). We can reach unbelievers through a spirit of meekness and gentleness (2 Timothy 2:25l 1 Peter 3:15), because they can see how we handle hatefulness and opposition.  Gentleness is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Colossians 3:12). An arrogant person cannot exhibit gentleness since they believe it is all about them!

Patience is the ability to wait. It is easy to lack patience with people and that includes our brothers and sisters in Christ. And for many of us, what we want…we want! And when we want it…we want it! We don’t want to wait on the Lord because our flesh is always eager and our hearts are always selfish. We want people to conform to our way of doing things instead of waiting on the Lord to do His thing in our lives (2 Peter 3:9)! God tells us to ask for what we want and He will provide it (Matthew 7:7). However, our problem is we lack patience. Even though God promises, He does not promise to give it to us when we think the time is right!  You would not consider that a lack of patience has anything to do with being arrogant, but just ponder about it for a minute. Arrogant people love themselves more than others, when the Bible clearly tells us how essential it is to love one another (1 Corinthians 13). Also, an arrogant person is impatient with helping others, while the Bible tells us we should not be so (Galatians 6:9). And again, an arrogant person is certainly not going to rejoice in anything that makes them uncomfortable; but as Christians we are told to do just that (Romans 12:12). 

What are you? Christian or arrogant? Because you certainly can’t be both!

A Prescription for Christian Living

Typically what comes to mind when we think of a prescription as medications that need to be taken for an illness or to maintain a healthy life. As Christians, we also need to maintain a healthy life, which means taking our  medications as well. When we become Christians, we are given a prescription that we must take daily for the rest of our earthly lives.

Taking our Christian Med[ication]s

We have to be Motivated by love; John 13:34 commands us to love one another as Christ loves us. 1 Corinthians13:3 tells us we are nothing if we don't have love and 13:13 proclaims that nothing is greater than love! Galatians 5:13 confirms that it is not about us and we need to serve one another in love while 5:24 lets us know love is a fruit of the Spirit. When you love someone, you will do all you can to make sure they have everything they need to be healthy and happy. We cannot be effective Christians and neither can we please God if we do not have love; because God is love! 1 John 4:16 In order to remain on a healthy road to heaven, we must take our daily dosage of love.

Living for the Lord takes patience and Endurance. We are children of God and therefore must endure the hardships that are part of being in His family. Also, as fighters in the Lord's army, we have to be good, enduring soldiers - 2 Timothy 2:3. In the end, our endurance will reap great rewards! Revelation 3:10 To ensure a healthy end, we have to medicate ourselves on endurance every day.

We also need to dose daily on Dedication. We have to be dedicated to action - 1 Peter 1:13; we have to be dedicated to the work of the Lord by putting Him first and giving Him the ultimate glory - Colossians 33:17. We have to be dedicated to delighting in our work for the Lord and we have to be dedicated to presenting our bodies a sacrifice for His work - Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.

Finally, and probably the most bitter of all our medication is the daily dose of Separation. We have to separate ourselves from the sins of the world. That means detaching ourselves from the world and the things therein - Titus 2:11-14; Galatians 5:16-18. We must live in the light of God, shunning the evil of the darkness  1 John 1:5-9. We must give up those things that satisfy the flesh for those that satisfy the Spirit - James 4:110; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7.It might seem so hard to detach ourselves, but as children of God, we cannot straddle the fence; we cannot be lukewarm - Revelation 3:14-22. We have to be on fire for the Lord! We have to have a burning fever that will only be treated by taking our medications - that prescription for living a Godly life!

Some “Do’s” and “Do Not’s” for spiritual and physical healthy living

Do not worry, for worry is the most unproductive of all human activities.

Do not be fearful, for most of the things we fear never come to pass.

Do not cross bridges before you come to them, for no one has yet succeeded in accomplishing this.

Do handle only one problem at a time, and leave the others to the Lord until their turn comes up.

Do not take troubles to bed with you, for they make very poor bedfellows.

Do not try to carry the problems of the world on your shoulders, for nobody (except for One) has a back that is broad enough.

Do be a good listener, for God often speaks to us through the mouths of others.

Do not try to relive yesterday; for good or ill, it is forever gone. Live in the now and rejoice in it.

Do firmly dismiss feelings of frustration, for 90% of it is rooted in self-pity and will interfere with positive action.

Do count thy blessings, never overlooking the smallest, for our biggest blessings are composed of many small ones.

Modified from “AUTHOR Unknown”

Chasing Shadows

For the sake of our pease of mind and especially our souls, the time has come when we must stop chasing shadows. We can spend the better part of our mortal existence regretting that the "what ifs" aren't "it is's". There is an old saying that hindsight is 20/20; but since none of us can tell the future, hindsight is misleading, and dwelling on decisions we did not make is unproductive.

Our lives can be so less complicated if we left the shadows of unrealized dreams, and [perceived] lost relationships where they belong - a past that was not supposed to happen, or it would have! However, we've all done it...cried over what we thought were missed opportunities of a more fruitful life. But what do you consider a fruitful life? Is your [fruitful] life inclusive of walkiing worthy with the Lord? If not; why not?

Chasing shadows is too consuming and puts the focus squarely on us. It becomes all about what we want. Instead of God-centered, our world becomes us-centered. We lose sight of our first love. (Revelation 2:4; Matthew 22:37; 1 Corinthians 16:22).

Chasing shadows takes us to a bad place and leaves us there a little longer than we want or need to stay.

Chasing shadows puts us at odds with our Godly duties because we are too busy worrying over worldly things.

Chasing shadows is rooted in a selfishness that can only be satisfied by temporal indulgences. (2 Corinthians 4:16)

Chasing shadows pulls us away from all that is good; all that is holy; all that is real. It deposits us into a realm of pleasure seeking this is contrary to the Word. (Galatians 5:19-21; 1 John 2:15-16; Colossians 3:5).

As children of an awesome Father (God), we are here to do His will through obedient service. We no longer chase shadows...we cheerfully submit to Him in everything that we do with a hopeful expectation for a magnificant eternal reward! (Romans 8:23-25; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Timothy 4:10)