VICAR

Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You are well.

If the First Week of Advent serves as a call to repentance, to “cease doing evil, and to learn to do good,” then the Second Week of Advent reminds us that living an upright life alone is not enough. We must submit ourselves in humility to the will of God.

What does that mean?

As humility is the opposite of pride, submission is the moral opposite of selfish ambition. To “submit” literally means “to order oneself under,” meaning to willfully put ourselves under the leadership and authority of another. So, God’s people are to repent of their love affair with the world. They are to grieve and mourn over leaving their first love, fully embrace what they’ve done and re-embrace the lord. Instead of selfishly and ambitiously vying for what they want, they are to humbly receive only that which God gives, being thankful and content with what He
provides. They are to cease striving to “get ahead,” and instead live to love and glorify God.

The judging and criticising of others has got to stop. These should be recognised as the gross sins of pride and arrogance that they are, not simply being “negative” or “critical.” And if those people are in positions of authority, it further demonstrates a lack of humility and submission. The reason that this all smacks of pride is that only God has the right to judge others and we’re really not just criticising others. We really think we’re better – that is where We go wrong.

Dear Readers, please dwell on these points this Sunday. Have a peaceful day and a good week ahead. As ever, God Bless You all.

Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the ways of Thine only-begotten Son, that through His coming we may be worthy to serve Thee with purified minds. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.

Amen.