Unmistakable Emphasis

I read this verse this morning, a verse that I’ve read probably fifty times before, with different eyes. It was one of those moments where the thing I had been looking at for hours finally came into focus. (like those cursed 3-D images from the 90s that took over every kiosk in every mall in America. They never worked for me, so I don’t know how well it fits as an analogy. Nonetheless …) It finally came into focus for me.

Psalm 100:3 - Know that the LORD Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

What became astounding to me in this verse is the unmistakable emphasis upon God—the Lord—the Creator—the Maker—the Shepherd—the Life-Giver. None of these titles or functions can be true of any of us. None of these titles or functions will ever characterize our lives. We are but sheep. Stupid. Clumsy. Fool-hearty. Prone to wander. Prone to disease, disaster and destruction. We are nothing in and of ourselves.

But, here’s the beauty of it: We are His. We belong to Him. We are His people. We are the sheep of His pasture. Even the pasture we graze in belongs to Him. We own nothing. We can claim nothing. We have nothing to our name. God owns it all. He created it all. And as the emphasis is placed on God, where it belongs, a funny thing happens. We decrease and He increases.

How can you decrease today so that God can increase in your life?