Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. ~1 Peter 5:6 (NIV)
God does not want us to be low, but He does want us to be lowly. One definition of lowly describes it as “humble in nature; attitude, behavior and spirit”. How humble are you? One step further would be to examine how humble we are in our attitude, our behavior and in our spirit. Is your normal behavior to serve or be served? Jesus said in Luke 14:11 “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (NIV) When we exalt ourselves in pride thinking we are better than others it will not be long before we are brought low, but God does not want us to stay there. He wants us to learn there. He wants us to recognize that through temptation we found ourselves in that low spot. He wants us to humble ourselves so that we do not have to be humbled. Our pride is a heart condition that must be dealt with. A prideful person does not want to wait on God for anything and they especially don’t want to wait for God to lift them up and exalt them. They want to try to make what they believe needs to happen themselves, which usually turns out to be a fiasco. God says humble yourself and let Him exalt you, let Him promote you and let Him avenge you. That can be a hard pill to swallow when we think we know exactly what we need to do to make things right. The Lord tells us in Proverbs 27:2 “Let another praise you and not your own mouth…” (ESV) How often do you tell others what you want or deserve? How about when you have been wronged or mistreated? When we start feeling like we aren’t getting the “love” or what we feel we are due that should be an indicator that it is time to humble ourselves, not exalt ourselves. We need to learn to let God be in charge of taking care of our outcomes and we need to get busy taking care of promoting His kingdom by being His hands and feet in this world.
God promises to lift us up and direct us when we have a heart attitude of humility. He tells us in Psalm 25:9 that “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.” (NIV) Is humility a character trait you need to work on? God tells us in Philippians 2:3 how to make that happen. He says “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves…” (NIV) What kind of value are you putting on those around you? Is there anyone in your life you consider less important or less worthy than yourself? You can be sure that they know it, others know it and God knows it. There is no place for arrogance in the life of the believer. Selfish ambition is just that and you cannot be self-absorbed, and God absorbed at the same time. Practice exalting God today instead of yourself. People will take notice but more importantly God will take notice. How many times do we hold God back with our vain conceit? Would others describe you as selfish? How about vain? Conceited? When was the last time you honestly evaluated your relationships? There’s no time like the present to make sure you are on the same page with God in all that you do. God says treat people golden and He himself will lift you up!
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ~Ephesians 4:2 (NIV)
Is humility a character trait you need to work on? How will you do that?
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