"Undone!"

     Pride originates less in an exalted view of ourselves, and more in the failure to comprehend the greatness of the God who originated and sustains our being.    

"I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up... then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone!" (Isaiah 6:1; 5).   

The prophet's view of the Infinite caused him to feel less than finite.  However "done" he was before the vision, he became "undone" afterwards.  We all need such understanding and experience, whereby our knowledge of the Holy elicits awareness in us of how small and unholy we are incomparison to Him.  Just as importantly, we discover that "in Him, we live and move and have our being," and that "He giveth unto all life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25; 28).   

In such light, pride dissolves "as a snail which melteth" (Psalm 58:8).  Indeed, true humility results from exposing ourselves to the illumination that enables us first to see God rightly.  The prophet's vision of the Old Testament translates into the believer's understanding of the Scriptures in the New Testament.  Indeed, the wise Christian consistently reads and ponders the Bible because he or she recognizes the need for a growing perception of God, and a lessening perception of ourselves.  As John the Baptist confessed, "He must increase, but I must decrease!" (John 3:30).  We humble ourselves by exalting our Lord, a determination that results from the discovery of His glorious and wondrous greatness.    "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).  Most amazingly, God Himself, in the person of His Son, took upon Himself the humble form of a servant.  The Lord Jesus Christ showed us the proper sensibility of human humility, even though He rightly "thought it not robbery to be equal with God" (Philippians 2:6).  Thus, just as the understanding of God's greatness drives us to our faces, so does His willingness to become "a little lower than angels" reveal to us the wicked insanity of our own pride (Hebrews 2:7).  May we open God's Word often to discover the glory of both His greatness and His lowliness.  Thereby will we find our proper place of being undone, and thereby our Lord will lift us up in His love, grace, mercy, and the peace of knowing both Him and ourselves rightly.

"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up." (James 4:10)