HUMILITY
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.” James 4:10 NLT
Humility is submission to God’s Sovereignty. Thus, when we humble ourselves before the Lord, we actively – purposefully – see God on the throne. He is the King. He is in control. We are the sheep of His pasture. And we can trust Him and His promises to pillar us in the eyes of others as we walk in His will for our lives.
We take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ – 2 Corinthians 10:5 – meaning, what we think about aligns with the 10 commandments. Our thoughts are not focused on another god.
God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit are in their rightful place – at the center of logistics with every decision we make.
Our thoughts are not taking the Lord’s name in vain, thus what we think about honors God, recognizing the power and provision in His name. Our thoughts honor the Sabbath day – meaning what we think about recognizes God’s wisdom in a day of rest, focusing on Him. Our thoughts honor our parents, thus what we think about in our mind regarding our parents respects them and pillars them, resulting in our speech and conduct pillaring our parents in the eyes of others, as they are also created in the image of God. Moreover, our mind’s focus is not on lies, stealing something, imagining hate crimes, or thinking upon a sexual encounter with someone or focusing on something or someone that we covet and desire. Thus, when our mind is taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ – it is humbling itself unto the Lord’s Sovereignty, stating God knows what is best for His people. And He knows that our mind needs to obey Him in this area, for our wellbeing.
Pride emerges increasingly so in different seasons of our life, if we are not careful, actively humbling ourselves before God – recognizing He is the giver of every good gift and any increase in our lives is due to His provision and blessing.
For some, pride emerges with the increase in knowledge. God is all knowledgeable. And we know Satan, who is an imitator, wants God’s knowledge, thus His power. Therefore, wise is the Christian who increases in knowledge, to submit that knowledge unto the Lord – recognizing the accountability of God with the knowledge obtained as Luke 12:48 states.
For others, pride increases with promotion to a position over others. Therefore, the act of humbling oneself before the Lord in this situation, looks like the individual recognizing what God says in how to treat people and seeking to live it out. We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves and when it comes to the church in 1 Peter 5:2-3, leaders are exhorted to care for the people willingly, whom God entrusted to them, to not serve them for unlawful gain but ultimately serving the Lord, and to not lord their position over the people in tyrannical controlling ways, but to lead them by example.
God speaking through Peter in 1 Peter 5:5-6 NLT states, “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.”
The mighty power of God is His Sovereignty. Thus, when we humble ourselves, we are submitting ourselves unto the Lord. Submission to God, humbling ourselves, is the opposite of pride that demands equal or superior positioning to God, desiring to rule His decision making.
Today, will you actively submit yourselves unto the Lord, trusting He will honor you at the perfect time?
Prayer: Abba, thank You for being in control of my life and the wisdom you provide. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
