PROMOTION IN DISGUISE

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. James 4:10 

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Jeremiah 1-3

Many a time, when God wants to promote a fellow , He starts with what looks like a demotion. The fellow will first go down before coming up. As far as God is concerned, the way up first and foremost is the way down. There are a lot of things that prevents God from carrying us, one of them is pride. Actually, pride makes us heavy in His hands. James 4:10 says Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. The moment God decides to promote a fellow, He will first take the fellow down to get rid of things like pride and other things preventing Him from carrying the fellow.

Let us look at Job, he was a very successful man. God prospered him in all He laid his hands on. Although this man was righteous , deep inside , there was element of pride in him. In Job 30, Job said he would consider it an insult to put a man’s father with his dog. Job 30:1 says but now they that are younger than I have me in derison, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock. When the Lord wanted to elevate him, He allowed the enemy to bring him right down to get rid of the pride . This man lost all he had but at the end , the Lord doubled all He had.

I remembered when I first joined my current employer, within 6 months, my managers began to consider me for a promotion. Deep within me , I thought I was special and the people i met there did not know what they were doing. When the job advert came out, I spoke to some brothers and we prayed, the Lord spoke and said, He had given me the job permanently. Mind you the job was a temporary appointment not a permanent one. Anyway I applied for the job and I was unsuccessful. Not only that, I was literally demoted. During this period , the Lord permitted somethings on my way. Some of those i trained on the job were promoted and they made life hard for me. It was then I learnt humility. After God was satisfied that I had learnt the lesson, the post came out permanently, I applied and I got it! That current embarrassing situation you find yourself could be that God is taking you down to get rid of somethings in your life before taking you very high. You maybe wondering why that ‘thing’ is happening to you, friends and people around you are insulting you with style , they know you are single yet they ask after your husband in public so that you can say I am single. If you are facing such, do not get angry and marry the next guy that comes along. Keep on praying and the Lord who has done it for others will surely do it for you.

PRAYER POINT: Father, please remember me.

Bro Samuel- Reaching the world for Jesus.