“And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” Matthew 3:9
Let us agree that God has a plan for your life that will result in blessings for many people and glory to God.
Now, the question is, could God accomplish his purposes without you? Could he instead do everything with, say, a rock?
Imagine for a moment that, instead of creating you, God created a rock. Could God still do everything he wanted to do in this world with that rock? Is your absence the fatal flaw in his plan?
The anser is obvious and Jesus’ words above leave no doubt about it. God can do anything he wants.
He doesn’t need you or me or anything else. He could do it all with just a rock.
This is very humbling! We like to think our actions are imortant because they are necessary, and without our valiant efforts, everything would fall into ruin, as if God could somehow be less glorious if we weren’t there to help him.
Yes. It is good to be humble. However, it isn’t enough to stop once your ego and pride has been crushed. There is another truth to consider.
In spite of the fact that God does not need us, he still inludes us. Even though he could exist quite happily in a universe of stone, partaking of his glorious Triune fellowship forever, he instead chose to create you and me and give us the honor of contributing.
It is a strange thing, this dance of pride and humility. By grasping for the lofty position and hanging on to pride, we miss the grace of God that seeks to life us precisely to the very mountain peak we could never have reached on our own.