The Christian life is not hard to live — if we walk in humility and fear the Lord. It is hard only if we walk in pride and fear our fellow man.

Those living the first kind of life spend no energy trying to “establish one’s self;” the latter work constantly at it. A life of humility walks with no walls, is quick to confess and repent, and allows God’s Holy Spirit to freshly flow in. A life of pride uses much energy to maintain walls of self-preservation, and is never secure without the acknowledgment of others.

The former’s life progresses from glory to glory, because it is so sensitive to the Spirit’s prompting that it does not hesitate when it hears the Voice whisper, “This too must die; here again you must lay down the way you think it should go.” The latter’s life goes from death to death, because, ironically, it refuses to die. It actually says “No” to the very door that would open it to life.

Where is your energy going: to self-preservation or self-annihilation? In your life, is trust more evident than fear? If we all know that the first way of living fuels us with the Lord’s resurrection power, why do we hold on so tightly to our lives and our pride?

Is uncertainty so scary? I would rather live by Jesus’ power with nothing certain in my life than to live a life that deposits a death stench wherever it goes. (Ephesians 5:2). All too often, we mistake another’s death stench as the Spirit of God if it brings comfort to our own death stench. This may be why our lives exhibit so little of God’s glory.

©2005 Masterpiece of the Wilderness, Deanna Deering