Reading this morning in Philippians 2. The footnotes say…Jesus was humble, willing to give up His rights in order to obey God. So, I paused there for a minute and thought about His rights. Rights…we are so often shouting about ours in many different forms. That’s a pretty big deal to surrender your rights. Then I thought of all the less “big deal” things we cling to and refuse to surrender in obedience to Him. (*sigh) From relationships to habits to career to material things to…the list is truly endless. He gave up his RIGHTS…and we cannot give up these temporary earthly idols.
Then the next footnote I read says, He did not give up His deity to become human–but He set aside His right to His glory and power in submission to the Father’s will. And so…by giving up all these earthly means of success and/or setting aside our illusion of power and security, we are not one ounce giving up our status, our identity, our worth or value. Our birthright as His child cannot be undone or changed. No matter what we give up, no matter what we go through, no matter what our circumstances or other people tell about our story. The truth is…we are beloved, precious, chosen, redeemed, ordained, worthy, dignified and ROYALTY. The ugly truth is…we are the ones who lay all that aside, who expunge our deity every single day for the temporary trappings of this world. He is beckoning us to let Him and His truth, who He says we are…be enough. When we know to the depth of our souls who we are and Whose we are, we can give up much. Jesus surrendered His rights…what are we willing to surrender?
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Marla Geiger 