Psalm 149:4 “For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.”
The humble are given grace and crowned with salvation, but God opposes the proud. So what does it mean to be humble?
Generally when I have thought of humility in the past, I have thought just making sure that I don’t think too highly of myself and acknowledging that I wouldn’t be able to do anything I do without God. But I think humility goes so much deeper than that. True humility isn’t just a certain perspective that you may have; it is a lifestyle that reflects your perspective. It is not just having head knowledge of where you stand in relation to God, but it is a life of surrender to God because of your understanding.
I think most people would agree that God’s ways are always right and perfect. However, although most of us would say that we believe that, we don’t demonstrate our belief through our actions. If we really, really believed that God’s plans were so much better than our own plans… we wouldn’t really have problems yielding to his plans. The reason we have problems giving up our agenda is due to our lack of faith and belief that God is who he says he is. We are not believing that he really is in control and that his ways are righteous and perfect. And by holding on to our own plans instead of God’s plans, we are stating through our actions that we have more faith in ourselves than we do in God. We are saying that we trust our own minds and our own solutions more than we do God’s. So in a nutshell, the reason we are not putting our complete trust in God is because of our pride. We are viewing our own capability to control our life higher than we view God’s ability to do so.
True humility then, is defined by a life of total surrender to God: a life of obedience to His Spirit and a life that is dedicated to the furthering of his Kingdom. Whenever we choose to disobey God we are telling him that we think our way is better, but when we follow his Spirit in obedience we are acknowledging that He does know more than we and that his way his better and perfect. Obeying God then, even when we do not understand why he is leading us a certain way, is what humbling ourselves before Him means.
In 2 Chronicles 7:14 we can kind of see this…
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
I think it is interesting in this verse how the act of humbling oneself is connected with praying, seeking God’s face, and turning from their wicked ways. It is when we worship God in this way, with all of our life, that we are putting our self where we should be and placing God in our life where he should be.
It is when we are in this state that God chooses to use us. There are so many instances in the bible where God first humbles individuals and then uses them in incredible ways in order glorify his own name. But the humbling of the individual always comes first. Joseph was sold into slavery and put in prison all for absolutely no reason. He never did anything to deserve that, yet he was humiliated anyways. But it was after this, after he had been humbled, that God chose to use him in saving all of Egypt from a famine and to ultimately bring more glory to God. Daniel was hated and persecuted for praying to God and ended up being thrown into the lion’s den. He was publically humiliated and humbled before God chose to save him from the lion’s den and bring him to a position of great influence. Mary was humbled in the way that she bore Jesus as a virgin. I am sure that her pregnancy was the cause of much public shame and humiliation, but God used it to bring forth the savior of the world!
We live to bring glory to God, so let us surrender our lives to him because his way of doing it is perfect! Let us humble ourselves before God, and not only acknowledge in our heads that His way is better, but live it out and follow Him when he prompts us to do things. Let us not think of ourselves as more highly than we ought, but instead look to Jesus, the Son of God, and worship him with our life and trust in Him because he deserves to be trusted, served, and worshiped with everything we have!
