At His Feet

July 24, 2017: Humility

Humbling ourselves is very hard is it not? I have been, well, trying to apply this to my life these past weekend and boy - it is hard! I am learning just how hard it can be to just pause, breath, and humble myself when I am upset or when I start something and need to apologize. The people that know me well...humility is not one of my strengths. In fact, just yesterday I sort of blew my lid and had to run away to pray and ask God to give me strength to endure the frustrations of yesterday and to give me the strength to say "sorry" for my wrongs. It was a beating to my pride, always having to say that word 'sorry' to people...and admit in my heart and aloud that I was in the wrong. 

But humility is important and not something to look down at. I think a person who is able to humble themselves are very strong to be able to own up to their wrongs or who are strong enough to not lose their temper in the midst of adversity. I think it is strong for a person to get slapped and instead of slapping the offender back, that person simply offers the offender their other cheek. 

Very, very strong indeed!
Something I wish I had already but it's a journey, you know?

James 4:6 tells us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humbled. Also, Philippians 2:3-4 says "Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humbled, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interest, but take an interest in others too."

When we are not humbled, we think and look out for only ourselves and other people just don't matter to us. We become prideful and selfish and want everyone to give us glory and praise or see how "cool" we are. We act a certain way or talk a certain way to be better than others around us.

God doesn't want us to be prideful or selfish: He doesn't want us to lord over others, placing burdens on their backs or making others think less of themselves because be THINK we are better than them. We're not. It is only by God's grace that we are saved and transformed. We were just like them and yet we still deal with sin. We're human beings just like everyone else. I have flaws just like the next person has flaws so what makes me think I am better than them? I just said moments ago that humility is not my strongest point...so how am I better than others?

Simple: I am not.
I am human and vulnerable to slip up.

Understand?

So what does Paul mean when he wrote for us to think of others as better than ourselves? Well...I know he didn't right that down for us to talk ourselves down or belittle ourselves: it just means to think of others better than ourselves and not belittle them or act as if we're hot stuff compared to them. I struggle with this to be honest so I'm learning about not belittling others or myself. 

Complete honesty 101: I fall into this habit a lot. It's either I find myself looking down on others or I find myself at times loathing myself and thinking the worst about myself. Both are very depressing because when I start being prideful, thinking of myself highly compared to the people around me, I begin looking down on others, a seed of bitterness starts to grow a weed in my heart and I find myself thinking hating how a person talks or how they act and really just not wanting to be anywhere near them...it's not good at all. When I am belittling myself, I find myself borderline hating myself because I don't seem good enough for anything and I feel useless and compared to others...I feel like I'm falling behind on everything.

These are not any good but take a look at my words carefully: notice anything? 

Comparison is a key factor in this: 2 Corinthians 10:12 puts it this way, "For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." 

We get only two things when we compare ourselves with each other: We get full of ourselves or we start to hate ourselves, wishing that we were more like someone else. We either find ourselves superior to others or inferior to others. Understand what I mean? There is no equality there because someone is either more than us or less than us in their own mind. It can cause problems like envy and jealousy and anger and low self esteem and maybe even hatred for others and for oneself. 

Now why am I writing about comparison when I started with humility? Stay with me and how my brain works but as I thought more about these two things, I began questioning is humility is the cure for comparison. 

Think about it!

Comparison causes strife and heartache, it can produce selfishness and pride; envy and bitterness but humility cancels that by letting go of the problems and letting God take control. When we humble ourselves, there's no need to compare ourselves with others and instead we look at our fellow human beings as nether above us or below us. We are able to look up to God for our worth, knowing that God gave us some amazing things too and He made us unique and beautiful. In the body of Christ, we will be able to work alongside our fellow Christian brothers and sister without any division. With people in general (whether believers or not) we are able to endure and be patient with them and show them who Christ is by action and words. 

You don't believe me? 

Jesus is the main example of being humbled, showing us that God doesn't want us to be prideful or selfish, ignoring the people around us because of their flaws. Does God/Jesus Christ ever do that to us? Ignore us and avoid us? Never! God loves us and He (Christ Jesus) lowered Himself, giving up His privileges just for us sinners. Jesus took our sins upon Himself and washed them away by His blood that was shed on the Cross! He wasn't caught up in Himself; He suffered and sacrificed everything for us! His time, energy, and even His very own life!

Just read Philippians 2:6-11! 

Before Jesus Christ went to be crucified, He prayed that God the Father would remove the cup from Him. That if it was possible, to let there be another way: However, in the end, Jesus Christ, the Son of God said this, "Let Your will be done." That humbling. 

Humbling says "Let Your will be done God." We submit to God and look to God instead of being prideful or comparing ourselves with others. We let God take control and obey God.

Father God,

I pray that this helped someone out there struggling with comparison, self hatred, or pride and is trying to understand what it means to humble themselves. I struggle with this every day and yet God, You are still with me, helping me through the moments and bitterness that pops up in my heart. Truth be told, I feel inadequate to write this message because I struggle with this but God, please help me not to think less of myself or less of others. Instead, give me the strength to carry the weight with others and not load it over their backs. Give me the strength to apply this into my life and to grow in humility even if it hurts. I thank You, my King and Savior, Jesus Christ, because You show me what humbling myself means and You are here with us to grow us and lead us and teach us to humble ourselves and love You and others. God, Thank You for never leaving us and that You will always be with us, In Jesus name, Amen. Amen!

-Candy