Bring ITPosted by Patrick Scott on December 17th, 2008
The disciples gave up everything to follow Him, they walked with Him, lived with Him, and learned from Him. They believed Him to be the Son of God. Even though they had this close connection, greater than any connection we may have with Him, they were still missing one thing. What is that one thing?
It is easy to get caught up in condemning ourselves, blaming ourselves, and dwelling on our own failings. As believers we cannot do this, it is wrong. It is self pity and self pity is a form of pride. We need to realize, I need to realize, that it is not about ourselves but about He who has saved us. Philippians 1:4-7 says
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now, being confident in this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.
Sometimes it is easy to think that things aren’t going well, because of our own doing, but think of the power in understanding that God is allowing us to go through this to enable us to carry His good work. How often we overlook the joy in trials, because we focus on ourselves. This mindset is called humility. Humility is something that the disciples didn’t know, until Jesus’ departure. When they were overcome with the Holy Spirit, and surrendered to humility, look at how things changed for the good of Christ. They became warriors to the Gospel. Peter, denied Christ three times, and then became one of the biggest voices for Christ, even unto death.
Pride is so often thought of as someone puffing themselves up , and boasting, but it is also ones self wallering in failures. The grace of humility is sufficient to bring joy in all things. Consider it pure joy my brothers when you encounter various trials. We will never know pure joy until we clothe ourselves daily in humility.
To paraphrase Andrew Murray’s book, Humility: The Journey to Holiness , Humility is the the highest virtue that is so hard to attain, but we should pray for it daily, and seek it with our whole being.
Martin Luther once said, “God creating everything out of nothing, and if we become nothing, He can make something out of us”.
How has humility infected your life? How does humility give you a different view of struggles in your past?