In the chaos and mudslinging of the race toward Election Day, many Christians are left wondering how we can really make a difference in such a dark time as this.
What if we saw this moment as an opportunity to be radically different than the world in our humility?
Pastor Colin Smith says this season of national confusion is just such a chance for us to be set apart and we can begin by humbling ourselves.
“We desperately need a counter-cultural community of people who model a different way from the kind of brashness and arrogance that we’re seeing increasingly portrayed around us. In national life, we are seeing our worst sins being paraded before us.”
Smith says the national search for leadership, and character in leadership, provides an opening to talking the truly unique leadership and character of Jesus.
“What an opportunity for us to say, wouldn’t it be something if there was a powerful leader, a strong leader who was truly humble? Wouldn’t that be something?”
“There’s a door to begin to talk about Jesus Christ. He is the one who has all power. He comes into this world as a servant; He came not to be served, but to serve. Any opportunity we have to hold up our Jesus, we should do that, because He is compelling in Himself when people can see who He is.”
The key is in Jesus’ words of blessing on the “poor in spirit,” which Smith says is the basis for the progressive blessings that follow. What does it mean to be poor in spirit?
“It’s to recognize that when I stand before God, I don’t have what it takes. I’m just not in a position to be able to say, “Lord, look at the life that I have lived and look at everything that I have accomplished!” So that breaks self-righteousness and brings us to a place where we really come to God empty-handed.”
“Thomas Watson says ‘if your hands are full of pebbles, you can’t receive gold.’ When we come trying to make out to God that we have something to offer to Him, our hands are full of pebbles. What we want is empty hands so that we are able to receive His gold. That’s really what it means to be poor in spirit.”
Colin Smith is the pastor at The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the Chicago area, and hosts Unlocking the Bible on Faith Radio Network. Smith is the author of several books, including his latest, .
A Time for Humility, with Colin Smith
