Be Humble
”So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time He will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.“
1 Peter 5:6-7 NLT
It is incredibly easy to make things more difficult than they need to be. If we’re going to be completely and totally honest, there is one reason: pride. Regardless of how small the situation may be, we like to be able to say “I did it” or “I didn’t need any help.” Think about it; what is one of the first things out of peoples mouths when a goal is achieved, a milestone reached, or a performance won? “You must be so proud!”
Now don’t misunderstand, there isn’t anything wrong with having a sense of satisfaction or excitement for such things, but pride is something all together different. Satisfaction or gratification is the joy from accomplishing, but pride wants everyone to know “that was all me, look what I did!” But we often blur those lines, and in doing so bring about twisted thought processes in our approach to things. This becomes especially apparent when it comes to our faith. When we said yes to Jesus, the only part we played in being saved is literally saying yes. That’s it. It was everything HE DID that makes eternal salvation attainable.
And that is why so many of us in the Western church get stuck once we are saved. Everything else has the tendency to take on a “works mentality.” We base our ability to grow in our faith on how much we do for God. But there is no where in scripture that suggests we are to live that way. There is nothing we can do on our own to bring the growth and the maturity God desires. Only He can do that.
And how does it come? Humbling ourselves. Submitting to the Spirit for guidance. Not just in some things, no family, in ALL things. And that’s why things get tricky. We want to just live our lives the way we’ve always lives them, and only allow God to help in the big areas where we can’t handle it. But God isn’t a part time parent, and He isn’t an ATM machine that’s only a part of our lives for the transactions we desire. On the contrary, He is quite the opposite. He wants it all! Every little part of our lives. Every little area we think is unimportant, He wants to be involved in it. Why? Because He wants to make your foundation strong in Him!
If we can’t walk according to His word and His ways in the small things, we will NEVER be able to handle the big things the way He desires. So in our prayer time, let’s ask the Spirit to show us those areas we need to humble ourselves in, and listen to what He has to say. Don’t be discouraged in what He says! He wants you to ask so He can show you where things need to change and bring about the abundant life He has for you! As you do this, HE WILL LIFT YOU UP to heights we could never achieve on our own!! Be blessed as our Father works all things together for your good!!
