Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Humble Yourselves

1 PETER 5:6 – Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”

JAMES 4:10 – Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. “

 

THEME OF THE DAY:  HUMBLE YOURSELVES.  Today’s scriptures are twins. They contain the same command and promise.  And this command is the gateway to the most important and necessary virtue in life – humility.  The importance?  Without humility, there is no salvation. Pride is what keeps people from Christ.  Without humility, there is no Christian growth. Pride is what keeps God’s people from spiritually growing into the image of the lowly, humble, and gentle Christ.

 

So, let’s explore this command and particularly, how to get the proper attitudes to obey it, but first, we must own the command.  Yes, God does the work by His Spirit of developing the Fruit of humility. However, we are to be cooperative agents in the work.  This process is described well by the Apostle Paul – But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me (1 Corinthians 15:10).  Do we see it?  God works. Paul works.  God works. We work.  It may seem contradictory but it is not, so leave it alone.  It is not a knot we are told to untie.  God works humility in us. We work with Him humbling ourselves and the work begins with two attitudes.

 

First, we foster the attitude to obey the command “humble ourselves” by remembering what we are – Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature (Genesis 2:7). Now sit back and take a “big piece of humble pie” . . . dirt.  That is what we are. We came from dirt and we are returning to dirt – By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). Such an awareness of our lowliness sets the stage to be humbled.

The second attitude necessary to obey the command to “humble ourselves” is to remember we are never alone.  Not for one second are we outside the Latin Coram Deo – “before the face of God.” Let the following scripture open our eyes and humble our hearts deeply – And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:13).  Maybe there are places we went, thoughts we had, websites we looked at, and things we have done that make our heads hang in shame and hearts humbled as we are aware God was present in all. But that isn’t the real attitude of humility we are to take away here.  Despite all of what God saw and heard, He still loves us and will love us.  That is what truly humbles us!

 

Humble ourselves is a command to obey, a key command to obey if we want to live the Christian life pleasing to the Lord. And it begins with the right attitudes – remembering what we are and who we are always in the presence of!

 

PRAYER: “Father, help me to obey the command to ‘humble myself’ by having the right attitudes about You and myself.”

 

QUOTE: “Humility is the chief virtue in the Christian life.  Without it, there is no salvation and no growth in Christ.”

 

In the affection of Christ Jesus,

 

Pastor Jim