This is my fourth journal entry as part of the OCC Volunteer Discovery Trip. The material relates to the fourth day of actual journalling but publication here will not align to that actual day/date.

The other articles available for this series are:

1. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #1: Introduction
2. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #2: God First
3. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #3: 7 Days Before You Depart
4. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #4: 6 Days Before You Go 
5. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #5: 5 Days and Counting 
6. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #5: 4 Days – Not Long Now [this article]

Journal Guide

Are you ready to learn something NEW every day? Be ready for God to teach you something every day whilst on your Discovery Trip. One of the things I know that can be an issue is pride. Pride can get in the way of learning.

READ PROVERBS 11:2 & 13:10

11:2 Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

13:10 Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise.

You need to remember that we do not know everything. Firstly, listen to God and secondly, to His friends (your team). If you seek understanding and wisdom from God, it will come to you. Many times, God uses people to help us obtain wisdom.

READ PROVERBS 2:1-6

The Benefits of Wisdom

1 My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands.

2 Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.

3 Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding.

4 Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.

5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.

6 For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Using the verses you have just read, write down what wisdom is.

Close your personal devotion time in prayer by asking God not only to teach you something today, but also for you to recognise it when He does and thank Him for it at that time. Praise Him for giving you the opportunity to grow in the knowledge of Him.

Journal

The issue and sin of pride has been a minor theme of late, even before this preparation for the Discovery Trip. I think pride is at the heart of a number of issues that plague modern society. Pride and our self-worth can be inflated and  fed by countless cultural sources these days. The western glorification of self may have gone too far in promoting the individual as the most important value. Our rights, our minds, our hearts are the targets pursued by politicians and marketers alike. This is one of the greatest points of differentiation for the modern church, but it is also one of the hardest attitudes and mindsets to change. God’s Kingdom and the church stand in somewhat opposition culturally – where the community focus on others is valued higher, and God is the centre and head of the community of faith.

Pride can definitely get in the way of learning. One of the subjects I studied as part of pursuing an MBA was titled Managing People for High Performance. Amongst the various texts and reading material, the challenge and question was posed – how do successful people learn? The article, from a secular standpoint, also acknowledged the harmful blocking attitude that pride represents, particularly for successful people. When people are driven towards success, and achieve that goal, how do they grow and learn? The mindset is therefore the crucial. For Christians, knowing that our success comes from God and that without Him, we can do nothing, helps us to keep our pride in check. All our success originates from God. As part of adopting an attitude of humility, we turn the focus away from ourselves onto God, who then receives the glory. Giving God the glory and seeing Him glorified is one of the purposes of our existence; we were created to give God the glory.

God’s commands are wisdom. When He unveils our hearts and minds so that we receive insight and understanding that is wisdom imparted. However, wisdom is not common, as per verse 4 – it is like hidden treasure. Wisdom is not exactly common sense, which is in itself, not t hat common either! Wisdom from the Lord starts with a healthy fear and reverence of His Lordship. To gain God’s wisdom we have to humble ourselves before Him, as part of understanding our relationship to Him. The main Hebrew and Greek words translated fear in the Bible can have several shades of meaning, but in the context of the fear of the Lord, they convey a positive reverence.

The Hebrew verb yare can mean “to fear, to respect, to reverence” and the Hebrew noun yirah “usually refers to the fear of God and is viewed as a positive quality. This fear acknowledges God’s good intentions (Exodus 20:20). … This fear is produced by God’s Word (see Psalm 119:38 also) and makes a person receptive to wisdom and knowledge. The Greek noun phobos can mean “reverential fear” of God, “not a mere ‘fear’ of His power and righteous retribution, but a wholesome dread of displeasing Him”. This is the type of positive, productive fear also described by Luke for the early New Testament Church. Fear and reverence of God is easily seen in the way we live out a life of humility. When I think of how to live humbly, songs like Be Still come to mind – the lyrics of the first verse in particular containing the phrase “reverence and fear”:

Verse 1
Be still for the presence of the Lord
The Holy One is here
Come bow before Him now
With reverence and fear

In Him no sin is found
We stand on holy ground
Be still for the presence of the Lord
The Holy One is here

Verse 2
Be still for the glory of the Lord
Is shining all around
He burns with holy fire
With splendor He is crowned

How awesome is the sight?
Our radiant King of light
Be still for the glory of the Lord
Is shining all around

Verse 3
Be still for the power of the Lord
Is moving in this place
He comes to cleanse and heal
To minister His grace

No work too hard for Him
In faith receive from Him
Be still for the power of the Lord
Is moving in this place

As the song suggests, bowing is a clear act of humility. Humility is not weakness either, which is a common misconception. Humility and meekness, as characteristics and values for us to champion, does not mean believers can be exploited, or walked over. Just because other (non-Christians) may dominate conversations does not mean our voice is silent. Indeed, sometimes our silence and few words demonstrate the greater wisdom. We are exhorted to listen twice as much as we speak, given we have a pair of ears but only one mouth. The whole song focuses on our ability to be still before God – in his presence, glory and power.

Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. Psalm 37:7