Another Layer Exposed

What if God wants us to fail at some noble endeavor to accomplish His plan? What is He allows our effort for Him to end in what seems to be humiliating failure in order for His Kingdom goal to be reached?  What if our role is the interim, or the associate, or the shadow dweller instead of the head honcho, or the one who stands in the spotlight on center stage?  A CEO of a big corporation is remembered as saying that there is not end to what one can accomplish if you do not mind who gets the credit.  Are we willing to be such a person?   

"Let me be exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee."  Perhaps, the previous words of the Wesley Covenant Prayer exposed our ego, but these additional words peel back the protective layers of that ego until it is painfully bare.  All of us want to be liked.  No preacher I know wants to stand at the door at the end of the service only to hear what an awful sermon has been preached.  Like Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, there is a part of us that wants to be liked, to be accepted, and to be one of the good looking crowd.   This part of the prayer Wesley prayed takes us to the place of obedience.  Is obedience more important to us than being liked?  Or we willing to be humiliated in the eyes of our peers if it means being seen as faithful by God?  Being exalted is easy, but being brought low goes against the grain of the human ege.  

One of the things we want most is to look good in the eyes of others which is one of the reasons it is so hard for us to accept the responsibility for our own failures.  We would rather blame someone or some unexpected circumstances.  When we no longer have to set ourselves on the pedestal, we are free to be brought low and, therefore, able to enter into more honest and accountable living.  To pray these words from the prayer declares that all we need to know about what we do for His sake is His approval.