THE DIFFICULT LESSON OF HUMILITY!

Every Trial Is A Testing

In every trial, there is testing. Amy Carmichael, one of my favorite authors, said, "Every test

is a trust." She meant every difficulty a Christian may face is testing their trust in God. One

of the lessons I have found to be the hardest is the one of giving up! Yes, I know this will

take some clarifying, so hear me out.

We frequently hear how great we are from many avenues. "We can do anything if we put

our minds to it," says the world. It's pretty hard to not be affected by this, and for that, we

must be careful to be on guard.

We are living in a world that screams self-sufficiency. It doesn't help that our sinful

inner-man loves pride. Pride is the root of most, if not all, sin. It was the initial sin committed

by the first two people on the earth. Adam and Eve wanted the knowledge that would have

them equal to God. (Read Gen. 3)

Total Deception

The world, coupled with our own sinfulness, makes our glory out to be something worth

striving for. That is total deception. When we became believers, the Lord opened our eyes

to our need for Christ and showed us how helpless we were without Him. Yet, even as a

believer in Christ, the tendency of self-satisfaction will continue until we meet Jesus.

One would think once we have understood the principle of humility the first time, we would

be done with that lesson. Nope! Not with an enemy who deceives with clever half-truths.

Don't Listen To The World

As Christians, we must continuously give up all hope in ourselves to live a life that is

pleasing to Christ. There is nothing good in ourselves, contrary to the world's opinion. It is

not until we have lost confidence in our own efforts that we can look up and see that we

have a God who is all we need.

We are weak and needy, and He is strong and rich in mercy. While God is rich, can you be

poor? No, all that He has is yours because HE is yours. God loves the humble child. Jesus

said in Matthew 5:3, "blessed be the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven."

Don't mishear me. We should not be lazy Christians. God did not create us to be idle. He

gave Adam, the first man, a job, to tend to the Garden of Eden.

Christ, the second Adam, came on a mission in obedience to the Father. He willingly came

and dwelt with sinful humanity and lived perfectly to die a sinner's death for us.

God has not given His people permission to just lay back and let the world happen. We

have been given a great commission and a command to love God and love people.

However, if we do this in our own strength, it is a sin. If we don't obey Him, we are trusting

ourselves.

What To Do?

The answer is to give up on self while clinging and entirely depending on Christ's grace and

His ability to work in you the will and the ability to do what He has asked of you.

"For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good

purpose." Philippians 2:13

It is then that you will see the grace of God at work in your life. It is a humble striving. We

are not trying to get stronger or better; we are striving to get lower and more humble.

I love a quote from Spurgeon, "Labor oh my soul, to know your nothingness by

contemplating God's greatness." See the order? Humility, and then we see the Glory of

God.

God Humbles In Love

God will not leave His children. But, for the sake of sanctification and His glory, He will

humble you. It is much more painful to be humiliated than to willingly obey in submission.

He will humble you in love, and if you are His, you will be glad in the end. Nevertheless,

going ahead in lifting empty hands before God is less painful and very freeing.

Humility Is A Gift

It is freeing to know we don't have to be great. It is liberating to know we can come with

nothing before God. 'Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the Cross I cling' as the hymn

writer wrote. When I look at myself, and when you look at yourself, you and I both know we

are pitiful.

We are tired and depleted of strength, we are thirsting and longing for relief. And all along,

Christ stands with open arms as we struggle to carry our own heavy baggage. He tells us to

give Him our burdens, but we are often too prideful to accept the fact that we aren't strong

enough to handle them ourselves.

Let us seek to know God's greatness in light of our nothingness and praise the One who

loved us so much that He would die for us!