If My People …..(3)

Before trying to be humble, make sure you have the right definition.

_________________

2 Chronicles 7:14-15 – If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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.  Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.

____________________

In what is now more than 49-years of ministry, I have often asked believers what it means to be humble.  I often find myself feeling perplexed at the answer I hear.  Perhaps the most prevalent answer is one that speaks of an attitude of making themselves lowly, or subservient to the people around them.  They often seem to establish themselves as the slave, or as some have implied, being a doormat upon which others would trample.  In these definitions, something vital is missing, often being completely misunderstood.

I have also heard far better definitions, especially when people say that to be humble is to always rely on the leadership and direction of the Lord.  While that is, I believe, an acceptably accurate definition, I believe there is one that is the clearest of all.  If you will, take a moment to read the brief passages in our Manna for Today, especially 1 Peter 5:6-11.  There, the Biblical definition of humbling yourself before God is “casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.”  One note here concerning the phrase, “He cares for you.”  While we know that God is love, and that God loves us supremely, that phrase I have noted here does not say that God loves us.  It simply means that if there are any cares (frets, worries, anxieties, fears) of this life, He will handle them for you so long as you cast them upon Him.  To state it even more succinctly, if I encounter something that would cause me to worry or fear, I cast that worry on Him and He does it for me.  I can sleep in peace because He never sleeps.

So, how does one go about humbling one’s self under the mighty hand of God?  You begin by going to the Word.  If God said it, that settles it.  Obey God in all things.  Do the Word.  When persecutions, afflictions, cares of this life, deceitfulness of riches, and lusts of other things enter in, take you rest in the Lord.  He will deal with them when you use your faith to cast them upon Him.  You will need to speak to the situation, bringing every thought into obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.  He has commanded you to NOT worry.  So, don’t worry.  Let Jesus handle that for you.  In that, you are walking in the highest order of humbling yourself to the Lord.  Many will call you arrogant or prideful.  But it’s not what men call you.  Rather, it’s what God calls you, and He calls that being humble.  So, ask yourself, “What does the Bible say?”  Believe that, speak that, hold fast to that, do that, and in that, you are being truly humble.

Manna for Today – 2 Chronicles 6:3 – 7:15; Psalm 10:12; Psalm 34:2; Proverbs 16:19; Proverbs 29:23; Matthew 18:4; Matthew 23:12; James 4:6-10; 1 Peter 5:6-11