I inadvertently messed up some important paperwork and recently have had to correct it. It was humbling in that it proved to all who knew about it that I was a fallible human. I suspect God allows things like this to happen from time to time just to keep us humble rather than proud.
While this was happening, typical of the Spirit’s ways, I began meditating on the fifth chapter of Peter’s first letter to whom he called “the elect exiles” spread across Asia Minor. True to form, the Spirit began making a couple verses come alive to me—words about pride and humility. You younger men must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, serve each other in humility, for “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.” So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor (1 Peter 5:5-6, NLT2).
Humility is NOT the self-abasement that we think of today. A classic word picture of biblical humility is a powerful race horse that has submitted to the control of his trainer or jockey. Humility has nothing to do with the horse’s worth, capacity or strength. Rather, it is all about how the horse uses its strength to respond to its rider. It is not what a person says about himself but rather his attitude in relationship to others, even in how they respond to conflict or abuse you or your ego. The reason we are told to humble ourselves is because “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.” That’s pretty sobering! Humility is not a loss but a gain, for it puts the believer in God’s favor and saves him from pride that would destroy him and rob him of future glory. We often worry about our position and status hoping to get proper recognition for what we do. Peter reminds us God’s recognition counts far more than human praise. God is able and willing to bless us according to His timing. The fact is, humility is as fundamentally essential to authentic spirituality as breathing is to our physical survival. Without it, all a person has is fossilized, Pharisaical religion.
Considering the vital nature of humility forces us to humbly accept change in our attitude and seek God’s grace OR arrogantly determine humility is not essential to true godliness. Although a proud person may say he needs God’s grace, the reality is a proud person cannot receive grace because he depends more on himself or his creativity or ingenuity to lift himself up instead of upon God to do so in His time and way.
Peter’s next words really grabbed my attention! How can we humble ourselves and yet not build our ego for having done so? Under the Spirit’s anointing Peter answered that question by writing, Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you (1 Peter 5:7, NLT2). I.e. You humble yourself by literally giving ALL your worries and cares to God—and not taking them back! One of our greatest mistakes is to assume we can deal with something ourselves only to discover that we cannot. Peter explained that the believers who continue to carry their worries, anxieties, stresses, and daily struggles by themselves show they are not really fully trusting God. Why not? Because it requires genuine humility to turn everything over to God and trust that He will care about you. When the abused exiles would come to see God at work behind their suffering and submit, allowing themselves to be brought low, He would exalt them in due time. This is equally true for us of us today!
Consider this; the worries and anxieties you wrestle with only show God is still waiting to give you much more grace as you choose to cast all your worries and cares on Him–and leave them there! Corrie ten Boom wrote, Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength. Letting God have your anxieties calls for action–trusting, not passivity. Don’t submit to your cloudy or dark circumstances but to the Lord who controls circumstances.
Awesome. Hard to receive grace until you KNOW you need it….So good. Thank you.