Hammer on Anvil '

Hi. Last night the Lord would not let me sleep. I am border line narcoleptic, so this means something, guys. I asked the Lord to speak to me, and whoa Nelly, He threw the book at me. Friends, I don't know if you have ever experienced anything like this, but I got chewed out by the Lord last night. My heinie was handed to me. My pride was laid out and I was ruined. When I went to respond to my Creator, I was told to shut up and write. I did. This morning I prayerfully went over what I wrote and once again I fell broken before the Lord. I am sharing what the Lord spoke to me, because He's kinda serious about this message. "His word in my heart is like a fire, a fire in my bones. I am weary of holding it in" (Jeremiah 20:9). What I typed last night is preaching to my pride, but I feel it is a word for all of us. I know you might not like me after you read this, but know this: I don't like me after I read this. This is for me just as it is for you. God isn't mean, friends, but He's just real fed up with how stupid we all continue to be.
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I am going to say something here that is going to hurt your feelings real hard: You are prideful. To the Lord your righteous claims and good deeds are nothing more filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Your Sunday School best and Christian radio bumper sticker are only fooling yourself. You do not have it figured out. You are not without sin. Your faith is bland. Your heart is deceitful  and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9) and the persecution you think is happening is the world really telling you to stop trying to sell a religion that isn't working for you either.

 Let me hurt your feelings even further: That aborted fetus photo you reposted on facebook with the caption,"What kind of monster would do this?!" only shines light upon your own sin. "Who would do this?" You would do this. You are not above any sin because your prideful pretending makes you full of sin. The minute you exalt yourself above a lowly sinner, you have failed. You are your own cancer. The treatments you created will not work.

Isaiah 50:10-11 says, "Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment." You think you have it figured out, but your self-righteousness and false religion have made you offensive in the sight of God. You are writhing in torment because you are so full of yourself. You created your fires, you lit your own torch, you walked your own way. You are so far from the Lord you don't even recognize His voice calling you back.

Friends, the Lord hates your pride. He hates pride so much because it blinds you to your own corruption and robs you of your joy. Pride is that feeling you have right now, that feeling that tells you this doesn't apply to you. Pride is everywhere in everyone, coiling itself around and plunging deep roots into our core. Pride is our thoughtlessness and foolishness. Pride is our lack of compassion. Pride looks like our bad choices and sounds like our justification.  Pride is our lack of contentment and our prison of want. Pride is our inability to seek the truth or take heed to wise counsel. Pride is the refusal to ask for help and the pompous spirit when others do. Pride is our anger and our failure to forgive. Pride is a $48 dollar t-shirt and newly remodeled kitchens. Pride is that fancy car we can't afford and the 12-piece living room set that is being rendered back to Rent-A-Center. Pride is our lack of vision and loss of direction. Pride is our substance abuse and our depression and our refusal to seek help. It is that nagging low self-esteem and terrifying oppression. Pride is why our faith seems baron and why our hope feels gone.

In Daniel 4 we are told the story of a prosperous king and how God turned him into some frightening bird/snake/beast man for seven years. Why? Because King Nebuchnezzer was prideful and God opposes the proud.

I learned several things from this story, but the two most important were:
1. God will take extreme measures to get your attention.
2. God will take extreme measures to get your attention.

Believers, God is trying to get your attention. If this hurts your feelings and breaks your heart, I rejoice. Not because you hurt, but because that means the Lord has not given you over to your own depraved mind. He is still working on you! Now is the time to take that battleground and give it back to God. Let Him restore hope to your hurting heart. Let Him do His job so you can do yours effectively.

So where do we go from here? Know that God rules and redeems. At the end of the seven years King Nebuchadbezzar, finally and simply, turned his eyes to the Lord and he was restored immediately. It's not too late for you. Humble yourself before the Lord. Turn your eyes back to the Father. Look to the heavens and say, "You are God and I am not." You can sit here and continue to pout about how all the things you have tried have failed, or you can look to the Lord and be restored by the renewing of your mind and the destruction of pride. The choice is yours.

Friends, if you feel heavy and burdened, know that God already provided a way out.  Jesus calls out to you in Matthew 11:29-30, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Trade your sorrows for the glory and praise of the Lord who always provides, always loves, and is willing to take extreme measures to get your attention, pull you from your deceitful self and restore you back into His hopeful arms.