A Spanner In The Works Series

Perhaps we had gained a notable victory over some temptation, or maybe by God’s help we attacked and conquered some darling sin, some one of those sins that so easily entangles us and to which we have proven to be particularly prone, some area or aspect of our life in which for years there had been an enemy stronghold that we had allowed to remain unconfronted but which now, by the grace and power of God, lay in ruins and which we were resolved would never be built again. And in the wake of that blessing in the wake of that victory we have thought ourselves well able to cope with the Ai’s in our life, those smaller sins which in our spiritual pride and presumptuous self-confidence we never imagined would get the victory over us. I’ll not commit that sin. That temptation is relatively easy to cope with. I can handle that. And lo and behold that little Ai in our life has been a place of defeat. That very sin got the better of us when we thought it so easy to get the better of it.

Or take a congregation that has been singularly blessed by God In some aspect of their life, work and witness. Maybe God in his grace causes them to experience tremendous growth. Unchurches people from the local community are being reached and coming in. Sinners are being saved. Other believers are leaving the dead, liberal Churches in the area in which they had been members, Churches which have departed from their evangelical moorings and which for whatever reason are no longer exercising a consistent Biblical ministry are joining that congregation. It is for that congregation a most wonderful time. But because they have been growing so noticeably, because things are being seen to be going so well, the Church both in its leadership and among its membership begins to think it is a great Church, ‘what a great Church we are’. And spiritual pride begins to grow, and self-confidence and self-sufficiency begin to reign supreme and soon a major spiritual defeat occurs in the life of that congregation.

Or take the young man who after several years of studying has been brought to the place of singular spiritual blessing by God where he has finished his training at theological college, has been licensed to preach the gospel and has received offers from a number of Churches to be their minister. All the while he was at college he so felt his need of and had such a sense of dependance upon God that he never for one minute thought he would fall foul of the sin of pride or find within himself a spirit of self-confidence when it came to the work of the ministry. But having received so many calls and having heard people speak so highly of him he approaches the battle of the ministry in a spirit of self confidence and pride, although he would never admit to that, only to discover in the wake of unexpected set backs that such a spirit is not the spirit in which to engage the enemy forces and seek to conquer enemy strongholds

A.W.Pink in his commentary on Joshua writes “…the people of God are never in greater danger of giving place to pride and presumption than when God has signally blessed and prospered them. Never does a believer need to act more warily and in full dependence upon the Lord than when his graces are in lively exercise and his heart is in exhilarated frame. Unless he does so, self confidence will creep in and more reliance will be placed upon inherent grace than upon the one from whose fullness we need to be continually receiving ‘grace for grace…only as we maintain the place of conscious weakness are we really strong.”