Base in My Own Sight

And I will yet be more lightly esteemed than this, and I will be base in my own sight; but by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them will I be honored. 2 Samuel 6:22

What do I think about myself? Not what people think about me. Not even what God thinks about me. But what do I think about myself? This is the million-dollar question I have to answer to myself and to God.

In my own sight, I should be base, considering myself as nobody and nothing. All self-pride and self-boasting must be crucified. This is a lesson I must learn daily. My ugly self should never raise his head. This is a matter of my heart. Only if I knew God and myself, then I will be able to deny myself and take the cross to deal with myself. This should not merely be a truth that I know or preach, but the truth that I practice and live by daily. O what grace I need from the Lord to live out this reality of being base in my own sight. 

David having been dealt with by the Lord through much affliction reckoned himself as nothing when it came to the things of God. He honored God with his very best and himself, nothing. What a pattern!

With this view, I must never care for my own reputation and should never seek to be recognized. This is a matter of my inward being, especially my heart. A humble heart with no expectation and against exaltation. How much I can be useful to the Lord depends upon how much I have been dealt with by the Lord in myself. No self-esteem, no self-respect even. Therefore, I must think soberly, never thinking highly of myself.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith. Romans 12:3

I must be warned not to justify myself in the sight of men nor be exalted. May God preserve the purity of my heart. In fact, may He purify my heart. To be exalted among men is an abomination.

And He said to them, You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Luke 16:15

Sincerely, I confess I am not a person who is base in my own sight. But the Lord Jesus is and the Lord Jesus can make me be such a one; a brother base in his own sight. Therefore, I take Him as my life, and living that the testimony of David be my experience day by day, "I will be base in my own sight."  

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5

Lord, grace me daily to be minded of You that Your mind may become my mind and may I be truly abased in my own sight.