Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen, and I am podcasting from Matthews, North Carolina, where we are just starting the War Special Forces Ministry in Matthews Christian Academy, which is a part of Bible Baptist Church here in Matthews, pastored by a friend of mine. We went to college together, graduated over 40 years ago. Certainly is exciting to be in a church of a classmate who has been faithful over these years serving the Lord, looking forward to God doing some great things.

Well, I appreciate you tuning in here to the podcast, and I wanna share something with you that I hope will be a help to you in your Christian life. The Bible tells us a simple verse of scripture. I’m gonna read the passage in James. It’s also found in 1 Peter and the Book of Proverbs. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

If you listen to the podcast on a regular basis, you know that we deal with humility on a fairly regular basis because humility is really an important part of the walk of faith. You cannot walk by faith and have a Christian life without humility because part of humility is dependence. It’s a “I need you God” mentality. Now I don’t wanna deal with that part of humility. There’s several aspects of humility. One of those is the issue of honesty. Now let me just say that humility is more than honesty, but you cannot have humility without honesty. It is certainly an integral part of being humble is being honest. 

And God gives grace to the humble. Now grace, as you know, for those that listen often, is something supernatural. The very essence of the word grace means it’s a gift. You can’t earn grace, you can’t work for grace, you can’t buy it; it’s something God gives to us. And he gives it to us when we trust him. But also says he gives it to us when we’re humble. Those go together, and God gives grace to the humble. And again, humility, a very important part of it, is honesty. And I have certainly been touched and encouraged by God’s people when they’re honest. And I appreciate so much many of the people I work with who have a spirit of honesty, not trying to act like there’s something they’re not. They’re just honest about their walk with God and when they’re struggling or they fail, they’re certainly not trying to act like they didn’t. And God blesses that. But God gives grace, supernatural intervention. That could be a variety of things. Could be joy, could be peace, it could be comfort, it could be enablement, it could be fulfillment, it could be all of those. But God graces us supernaturally when we get honest. Now I would encourage you, young people, and of course, I know some older folks are listening as well, but I would encourage you about honesty, three areas of honesty. 

Number one, we need to be honest about our sins. Now I recognize God doesn’t necessarily want us to go on a street corner and tell everybody about all our dirty linens, so to speak, but we need to be willing any time God touches our heart to be honest with those we’re around. If you’re a teenager and there’s things you’ve done behind your parents’ back and you know they would not be pleased with those things, then you need to be honest with them. Mom and dad, I watched something on YouTube you wouldn’t have wanted me to watch. Or mom and dad, I connected up with somebody on social media that you’ve told me to stay away from. Or our mom and dad, I was around people using language that they shouldn’t have used, and I didn’t leave, and I didn’t confront it. I don’t know what it might be, but you have to be honest about your sin. Now, let me just say that really the first person you need to be honest with is with God himself. And sometimes really, we just need to be honest with God. I know so many times we think, well, God already knows, but he wants you to just cut a straight shot. In other words, God, I provoked my younger brother and I was wrong. God, I got angry with my siblings, or I got frustrated with my mother, or God, I didn’t have the right spirit when I responded to my father’s command, whatever. I don’t know what it might be, but sometimes we just need to be flat out honest, or God, I’ve struggled in my thought life. I’ve been thinking sensual thoughts. God, they’re wicked, it’s impure, it’s a betrayal of my future spouse.

You see, that’s getting honest with God. And I find that many times, recovery in the Christian life comes when you just get honest with God. You just tell him like it is. You don’t try to make it better than it is. You just gotta honest with God. Like I said, he already knows, but sometimes we just need to say it. I think using Bible words, like an evil heart of unbelief, sometimes is very helpful. God, I doubted you. I had an evil heart of unbelief because that’s the way God views it. And that’s really what confession is. It’s just getting honest with God, agreeing with God, and calling it what he knows it to be. So get honest about your sin. Maybe you just need to get on your knees after this podcast and just lay it out before God. You’re miserable, you don’t feel right spiritually, just tell God the way it is. And sometimes, obviously, there’s another step, as I mentioned a moment ago, to talk to a mom or a dad or to someone you wronged and just say, hey, I need to be honest with you. I didn’t do right about that.

Okay, the second thing is we need to be honest with God about our weakness. Sometimes we just need to tell God, you know, I know that you’ve called me to preach, but I sense a weakness in my heart when it comes to preaching or speaking in front of people or soul-winning, giving the gospel, or handing on a track. I seem to have a lack of courage. And just being honest with God about our weakness. Now, many times we view our weaknesses as liabilities. I’m not sure God views it that way. Can I say, I think he views them as assets.

 I love that song, “I Cannot Do Without Thee,” written by Francis Havergall. It’s been put to several different melodies. But in that song, I think it’s the third stanza, I could be wrong, it says weakness will be power when leaning hard on thee. You know, we all have weaknesses. Sometimes we need to just tell God about our weaknesses. But then we need to lean hard on God and obey Him. And as you’ve heard me say before, get out of the boat and walk on water, trusting Him to enable you to do it because you know you can’t, but He can enable you to do it. It might be inviting your friend to church. It might be giving the gospel. It might be spending time in prayer. It might be opening your Bible and studying it. You might find yourself weak in some of those areas, but lean into God. Tell God all about your weaknesses, but in those, don’t tell him in unbelief. Tell him, believing, you know, God, I’m weak. But when I’m weak, you’re strong. And He told us, His grace is sufficient for us. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. Be strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. And so sometimes we need just to be honest with God about our weakness. And in doing so, we’re really telling Him, God, I know in my own strength I can’t. But I’m looking to you as I step out and obey you to enable me to do what I know I can’t do, what I have a weakness in. Okay, so be honest with God about your weaknesses.

 But one more that we sometimes forget, and that is being honest with God about the hurts that have occurred in our life. You know, sometimes we really can’t help being hurt. Now, just in the literal world, sometimes we’ve slammed a hammer down on a finger. We didn’t obviously want to do that, but we did, and it hurt. But I’ve found many times in life, even if that occurred, we didn’t want it to occur. When hurts occur, it’s not something that generally was preventable, in the sense that somebody says something that hurts us. Somebody does something that brings pain to us. We have some circumstances that occur that are hurtful. Maybe a variety of things that happen in just the world of living. And sometimes it’s helpful just to go before God and say, you know God, this was said to me, it really hurts. You know what happens when we do that? We’re trusting our pain to God. We’re trusting that God is big enough to heal us, to take those situations that are hurtful and work them together for good. Now there’s much more to do, and I could certainly deal with that some other time, but many times the very first step we need to do is just trust God with our pain, trust God with our hurt, tell him exactly what’s going on in our hearts, and by doing so, it’s really our first step of faith. God, I’m trusting you with the difficulties of my life, believing you’re big enough to give me wisdom how for these to be healed, you’re big enough to heal them, you’re big enough to show me what steps to take to bring resolution, and I can trust you with the difficult things that have happened in life. 

You see friends, God gives grace to the humble, he gives grace to the honest. So why don’t you get honest with God about your sin, your failure that you haven’t already dealt with. And get honest with God about your weakness and the steps of faith God wants you to take to overcome those weaknesses and to watch God intervene and enable you to do what you cannot do because of your weaknesses or what is difficult to do because of your weaknesses. And then get honest with God about your pain. Get honest with God about the difficulties. You know what you’re gonna find? God graces you. He gives grace to the honest, the humble. May God grant you to do that, and doing so, friends, that really is starting down the road of total surrender to God and total dependence on Him.