IJeremiah 49:16 Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord.

I have felt less than inspired these past few days. So I did a bible search for inspire or inspiration, neither of which I found in that search. This passage came up however, one that does not seem to speak to inspiration but yet spoke to me. It would seem that the Lord has brought me down. He has not let me down, He has brought me down.

God does all things with purpose. All I have to do to understand that is to look into my own actions, my own heart, to discover why. The mind is not the place to look. My mind will deceive me in vain imaginations. I will try to tie the results to the thoughts I had to the reason I began the search. I had a need to understand how to be inspired and to inspire others. It is vanity to believe that anything the Lord might show me has anything to do with my reasoning.

The very first thing found in this passage speaks to deception. Caution must be exercised when we are told that deception is a real possibility. The obvious must be examined closely to be seen for what it truly is at that moment. Am I seeing things for what they are, or what I wish? Actions are easily examined but the motivations of the heart as to why those actions occurred is not that easy.

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

A more gentle word for reprobate is phony. While perhaps gentler, it still means acting without faith.

Psalm 73:16 When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;

Which quote is more pleasing to your ear? Ignorance is bliss. OR You can’t handle the truth.

The first is steeped in sorrows. The second is full of pride. Both come from a place of experience.

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Can you identify with Isaiah 53:3 in that part, “we hid as it were our faces from him”? Do you tell yourself; that isn’t me, I don’t do that? This is our Savior Isaiah is talking about. This was His experience and His answer to all that was to be obedient to God the Father and His will. It isn’t pleasant to think about. It isn’t fun. It isn’t something we want to identify with, but we in Christ and Christ in us is the whole of who Christ is and not just parts we would like to see.

Growing is Christ means that sooner or later we are going to have to deal with this ugly truth, it can be painful. One of the definitions of esteem deals with finding value. We find value in Him in salvation, intercession, forgiveness, redemption, mercy, love and friendship. Do we see value is sorrows or pain?

Mercy and love will allow you to be blissful. But you will not come to know the fullness of Christ by not experiencing the value of the sorrows and pain that are a part of His experience.

2 Corinthians 1:5-7 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.