Patience for Promotion

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"Submit yourselves under the mighty hand of God so He may exalt you in due time" (1 Pet 5:6)

The Feast of Tabernacles was near. Jesus' own brothers urged Him to go to the Feast and work miracles publicly. They said, "No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret!" (Jn 7:4). Look at His answer: "The right time for Me has not yet come; for you any time is right" (v6).

Eventhough it was His own brothers who suggested the promotional programme to Jesus, He politely turned it down. He knew that a natural man could not understand the things of God, and the carnal mind was enmity against God (1 Cor 2:14). So many preachers have missed the perfect will of God because of strained comparison and ill advice. How many ministries are corrupted and commercialised because of the lust for limelight! Show-off is totally alien to the Spirit of Christ. What a lesson the seraphim teach us in that they "covered" their faces and their feet when they ministered before the Almighty (Isa 6:2,3).

Jesus knew that promotion would come from Above, not from east or west or south (Psa 75:6,7). It was this firm conviction that made Him say a resounding no to a related temptation on the hilltop (Mt 4:8-10). He taught Himself patience to await the Father's time when every knee would bow before Him acknowledging His lordship (Phil 2:9-11). When people saw how Jesus fed over five thousand people with just five loaves and two fish, they wanted to make Him King. But as He wanted to wait for His Father's time, He quietly withdrew from them and went alone to mountainside (Jn 6:15).

Apostle Peter exhorted young people to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, that He might exalt them in "due time" (1 Pet 5:6). No man can exalt us to a place God has not designed for us; nor can anyone bring us down from where God has placed us. God will vindicate us for any injustice done to us. The earlier we learn this truth the better for us. We will be freed from tensions and conflicts. Self-promoting techniques simply place us at the devil's hands. The end will be miserable.

Therefore, be patient; and again I say, be patient!

O let me feel Thee near me — the world is ever near;
I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear:
My foes are ever near me, around me and within;
But Jesus, draw Thou nearer, and shield my soul from sin!
                                      (John E. Bode, 1816-1874)  

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