Many difficulties arise in the church today because we do not have an enlarged heart; pride comes from a narrow heart, and we all need to ask the Lord to enlarge our heart day by day that we may be delivered from pride.
When Solomon was about to be king, he prayed for wisdom to lead God’s people, and God gave him wisdom and largeness of heart.
We need to ask the Lord to enlarge our heart so that we may be genuine ministers of the new covenant, those who have an enlarged heart with the intimate concern of the ministering life, which is a fruitful life.
The Lord didn’t put us in the church life merely for us to enjoy Him and be with the saints; He put us here so that we may care for one another according to God by first letting the Lord make His home in our heart, and then letting the saints also make their home in our heart.
The apostle Paul was such a one who had his heart enlarged toward the Corinthian believers, and his mouth was open wide to speak frankly to them and minister life to them so that they would be brought back from any misleading.
The Corinthian believers were constricted in themselves, but in Paul there was a large heart and an open mouth to speak God’s word to His people. We all need to admit that we are still very narrow and selective in the church life, and we carefully choose whom do we allow into our home and in our heart.
We cannot enlarge our heart, and we shouldn’t pretend we have largeness of heart when we don’t have it. We simply need to contact the Lord and let Him make His home in our heart, and we need to contact the saints and let them also get into our heart.
When the saints are in our heart and the Lord makes His home in our heart, we will have a heart for the saints, and we will know how to minister life to them according to their situation and condition. When our heart is open and enlarged to receive all the saints, we will cooperate with the Lord to bring the misled or distracted believers back to God.
Our ministry to the Lord and in the church depends on the condition of our heart. We need to ask the Lord to enlarge our heart and save and deliver us from pride, which is a sign of having a narrow heart.
It is a big problem in the church life when an elder or responsible brother has a narrow heart, a heart that is not enlarged. This can cause many problems, offenses, and misunderstandings.
Are we able to embrace all the saints and let them into our heart? Are we open to speak with all the saints, or do we still have a preference concerning who we want to speak with and who we want to be with in the church life?
May the Lord save us from having a small, narrow, and selective heart, and may He enlarge our heart until it becomes a duplication of His heart for the church life.
Pride comes from a Narrow Heart; we need to be Delivered from Pride in all its Forms
There are many difficulties in the local church today simply because the saints or the elders don’t have a large heart; pride – an expression of foolishness – comes from having a narrow heart.
We may want to care for others and even aspire to be overseers, those who cooperate with the Lord to care for the saints’ souls according to God, but if we are proud, we are instantly disqualified.
Many dear saints have been broken and made useless by pride, and they were strewn away as they were damaged by pride and ambition.
We need to realize that pride is an attribute of our fallen nature by birth; it’s in our genes and DNA to be proud. Even with the apostle Paul, the Lord was wary of his exceeding exaltation of himself, so He let him have a thorn in his flesh from Satan (see 2 Cor. 12:7-9).
Paul taught that a new convert should not be an overseer of the church, lest being blinded with pride he fall into the judgment prepared for the devil (1 Tim. 3:6). It is so easy to be lifted up and be proud, and thus fall into judgment; the downfall of Lucifer found its source in the pride in his heart.
We need to always remember that humility saves us from all kinds of destruction and it invites God’s grace, for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Pride makes us a top fool; we may not realize this when we’re proud, but later when we reflect on what happened, we realize we were total fools when we were proud.
Rivalry in the Lord’s work is not only a sign of ambition but also a sign of pride; there should be no rivalry in the Lord’s work. In the church life we don’t have a “linked-in page” where we can boast of our accomplishment; rather, we learn to humble ourselves under the Lord’s hand.
Caring for our prestige and neglecting others’ dignity are a sign of subtle pride; we may not boast, but we may just “refer to our successes” – this is a sign of subtle pride. Referring to our capacity, our success, our perfection, and our virtue are all careless forms of pride.
We all have such an illness; we may not boast to others, but we may refer them to our success and perfection.
Thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think is another form of pride; this annuls the proper and organic order in the Body life (see Rom. 12:3).
When we think more highly of ourselves, when we have prideful thoughts, we lose our sobriety – we are a little drunken, and so we overreach, we are out-of-place, and we overturn the organic order in the Body life. We need to train our mind to think as the mind of Christ!
Christ in His humanity humbled Himself to wash His disciples’ feet; this gives us a good model of how we should humble ourselves to escape from pride and be delivered from pride (see John 13:3-5).
Arguing about who is greater in the church or the Lord’s work is an ugly form of pride (Mark 9:34); the Lord’s way is the cross, but sometimes we’re like the disciples, arguing who is greater.
Wanting to be great and not to be a servant, and wanting to be the first and not to be a slave are signs of pride (Matt. 20:26-27).
Lording it over the members of the church under our shepherding is a strong sign of our pride (1 Pet. 5:3); the desire to control and manage others’ life, to have a say of how the saints it should be, is lording it over the saints. Oh Lord Jesus!
The apostle Paul presented us with a good model (1 Tim. 1:16); he preached Christ as the Lord and himself as the believers’ slave for the Lord’s sake (2 Cor. 4:5), and he testified that he was weak with those who were weak so that he might gain the weak (11:29; 1 Cor. 9:22).
To restore with meekness (a gentle expression of humility) a brother overtaken in some offense protects us from being tempted also (Gal. 6:1).
Self-boasting, self-exaltation, self-glorification, and lusting after vainglory are all ugly and base expressions of pride (Gal. 5:26). We need to escape pride – we need to be delivered from pride in all its forms and expressions!
Lord Jesus, deliver us from pride. Grant us that we would humble ourselves under Your hand and seek Your blessing. Save us from being caring for our prestige while neglecting others’ dignity. May we not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to but rather consider others more excellent than ourselves. Lord, we want to learn from You to humble ourselves and escape from pride. May we not despise the weak ones but be weak with those who are weak that we may gain the weak. May we be meek to restore those overtaken in some offense. Amen, Lord Jesus, deliver us from pride!
Asking the Lord to Enlarge our Heart and Save us from being Narrow in Heart
Many times we think that, for us to serve the Lord and care for the saints we need more wisdom; actually, the secret of wisdom is to have an enlarged heart.
Many of our inaccurate judgments are caused by our narrow heart; on the surface it appears that we lack wisdom, but actually, the real problem is because our heart is narrow.
We need to pray that the Lord would enlarge our heart, and we need to practice to enlarge our heart in all things. Whether in learning the truth, in seeking to be spiritual, in contacting the saints, in discerning others, in caring for one another, or in taking care of practical things, we need to be enlarged in our heart.
Largeness in heart solves many problems in the church. For example, suppose everyone else in the church knows about a certain matter, but you don’t, and no one tells you; when eventually that matter comes to light, do we have a heart large enough to not complain about it or blame others?
Perhaps someone offends us today and then he comes to apologize; is our heart large enough to let this go and forgive him? If our heart is enlarged, we are able to forgive, and the Lord will also forgive us (see Matt. 6:14-15).
There are many difficulties in the local church because the elders don’t have a large heart, and the saints don’t practice to ask the Lord to enlarge our heart.
One way to deal with this is to blend by going to visit other localities and even saints in other countries. When there are conferences abroad and we go to blend, our heart is enlarged.
It is wrong to be proud or boastful, and it is also wrong to try to be enlarged; we need to cooperate with the Lord in prayer to enlarge our heart, and we need to learn to let things go.
The ability to forgive others and forget their offenses has to do with largeness of heart. The ability to love those who inflict harm on us, forgive those who offend us, and continue to fellowship with those who are different from us has to do with largeness of heart.
Toward ourselves we need to be strict, and our being has to be disciplined; however, toward others we need to have a large heart. Because we do not have a large heart in the church life, we make mistakes and have regrets.
Sometimes someone asks us to do something for them today and we quickly say no, but then later we regret it. Someone invites us to visit them or we invite someone over for fellowship and the answer is no, but then later we have regret.
Someone may ask for our forgiveness and we do not forgive him, but then later regret. Because we are narrow persons, we do many things that we regret later.
The ability to forgive others when they have offended you is a matter of largeness of heart; if we have an argument with a brother, it is mostly because of the narrowness of our heart (Matt. 6:14-15). We need to pray and cooperate with the Lord that He would enlarge our heart day by day.
Lord, enlarge our heart! Save us from having a narrow and constricted heart, a heart that is unable to forgive and forget, a heart that doesn’t go along with others. Lord, for the sake of the church life, please cause our heart to be enlarged! May we be enlarged in heart as we study the truth, pray, fellowship, seek You, meet with the saints, and serve in the church life. May we forgive others even as You have forgiven us. May we be able to let go of offenses even as You forget our offenses. Oh Lord, duplicate Your heart in us and enlarge our heart!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, The Elders’ Management of the Church, pp. 41-43 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 4, The Heart and Spirit of a Leading One.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lord, broaden my heart, / In matters of pride, defeat me; / A duplicate heart, / From Your heart to mine, infuse me; / To minister Jesus, / Showing love to all we meet. (Song on, I Need a New Heart)
# Bearing one another and forgiving one another, / If anyone should have a complaint against anyone; / Even as the Lord forgave you, / So also should you forgive. (Scripture song)
# When each can feel his brother’s sigh, / And with him bear a part; / When sorrow flows from eye to eye, / And joy from heart to heart; / When, free from envy, scorn and pride, / Our wishes all above, / Each can his brother’s failings hide, / And show a brother’s love. (Hymns #857)
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