The Way of Descent

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”

-1 Peter 5:6

Our church is on a journey together that corresponds to the season of Lent. We are calling it The Way of Descent. The following is an excerpt of something Mark wrote for our church newsletter that will bring some understanding:

“We usually want to be uplifted or encouraged. Descending is a “downer” word. But, we need to understand God’s design for us to move upward. At the heart of all of this is humility, a lowering of ourselves. 1 Peter 5:6 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” It seems that precisely in lowering and humbling ourselves, God is able to lift us up and use us for great things. Even Jesus came as a servant and slave of all.

I’ve been reflecting on some of the words written by Andrew Murray, an influential missionary to Africa in the 1800’s who said, “I am amazed at how little humility is seen as the distinguishing feature of discipleship.” That line strikes me over and over. Could it be that somewhere at the core of being a follower of Jesus is understanding what it means to be humble?

Moses, we know as a great leader in the Old Testament who God used to lead His people out of their slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. He was one of the most influential people of the Old Testament, remembered and revered for generations and even to this day. One thing often missed about Moses is his humility. In the book of Numbers 12:3 it says, “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” That is quite a statement. We often remember the great things that Moses accomplished. But, before anything great happened, God saw humility in Moses. More than anyone else on earth! Moses is an example of the 1 Peter verse. He was humble and God raised him up. Often I think we want to do the raising up part. We want to succeed or to be noticed when we do well. The problem is we first need humility. We have to lower ourselves. Murray defines humility as “the place of entire dependence on God.”

Moses also had the timing factor, as 1 Peter mentions “in due time.” Moses spent years and years in the land of Midian where he was married and had children before God appeared to him and sent him to deliver the people from Egypt. We not only have to have humility, we must continually live in humility and God in due time will raise us up. We don’t like the years and years of waiting and being humble. It’s hard for us. But, God can do great things in us when seek humility and begin to understand what it looks like to live it out…In [Andrew Murray’s] words, ‘nothing is more natural and beautiful and blessed than to be nothing in order that God may be everything.’”

The eight weeks (beginning the Sunday before Ash Wednesday) focus on the following:

1. God Pursues Us

2. Our Condition

3. Our Humility

4. The Cross

5. Confession & Forgiveness

6. We Pursue God

7. The Way of Descent

8. Resurrection Sunday!

There are daily Scripture readings and challenges that focus on the Lenten themes of sacrifice, repentance, fasting, prayer, and self-control. We are excited to see how God is using this and will continue to use this to challenge our church to deeper places in Him. If you want to join us, we are posting the daily Scripture readings each week here.

While many Protestant churches have shunned such seasons of the church calendar because the meaning was lost in ritual and tradition, I have found such season to be meaningful and deeply challenging when I can refocus on the foundation and principles that it was originally meant to point to.

I will close with a quote from a great website I use when I am looking for information on the different season of the Church Year. Let this be our hearts cry this Lenten season:

“Perhaps during the Lenten season we should stop praying for others as if we were virtuous enough to do so. Perhaps we should take off our righteous robes just long enough during these 40 days to put ashes on our own heads, to come before God with a new humility that is willing to confess, "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner." Maybe we should be willing to prostrate ourselves before God and plead, "Lord, in my hand no price I bring; simply to the cross I cling." That might put us in a position to hear God in ways that we have not heard Him in a long time. And it may be the beginning of a healing for which we have so longed.

O Lord, begin with me. Here. Now.”