(Day 7)
The third blessing of the Kingdom of Heaven
"Blessed are the humble, for
they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)
In the Bible perspective we see the
word humble used to describe someone who recognizes who he is, in relation to
God. A humble person does not think of himself as being better or worse than
others.
(Romans 12:3) For by
the grace given to me I ask every one of you not to think of yourself more
highly than you should think, rather to think of yourself with sober judgment
on the measure of faith that God has assigned each of you.
Some believe that you are humble when
you recognize your own defects, and not your own virtues. This would be a false
humility, since you would be putting yourself down before others. A false
humility is a type of “spiritual pride”. True humility is recognizing who you
are, with your own virtues and defects, and what is your place before to God.
TURN YOUR EYES TO HEAVEN
Keeping our eyes on God is what keeps
us in a state of humility. This places us within the right perspective. We
can’t set ourselves higher than we actually are, when we know who God is and
what we are, compared to Him. We were created in His image, and our goal is to
be like Him. “You therefore must be perfect, as
your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mat 5:48). Are we there yet?
Confronted by this reality, we have no choice but to be humble.
We will remain humble if our aim is
to please God, not men. (Galatians 1:10).
(James 4:4-10) You
adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity
with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an
enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says,
"He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in
us"? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to
the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and
he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse
your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched
and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to
gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Jesus is the best example of humility
we have. Even though He was above all, he was not looking for recognition or
approval from others. He didn’t defend himself before the critics. He knew who
he was and what he needed to do, and that was enough for Him. The only one He
wanted to please was the Father. Jesus is the best example of humility, and we
must learn from Him.
(Matthew 11:29) Take my
yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you
will find rest for your souls.
Other than the Lord Jesus, the most
humble person in the history of the Bible was Moses.
(Num 12:3, 6-8) Now the man Moses was very meek, more
than all people who were on the face of the earth… And he said, Hear my words: If there is a
prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak
with him in a dream. Not so with my
servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I
speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of
the LORD...
It is not a coincidence that Moses was
the meekest man, since he was also the man who was closest to God. When we have our eyes on Heaven, we have no
choice but to be humble, because we recognize who we are before God. We find
ourselves in an eternal perspective.
When we set our eyes in this world,
then we are in trouble, because we begin to compare ourselves with others. We
come to think of ourselves as being better or worse than others, and we forget
who we are before God. If we turn our eyes to this world, we will either try to
impress others, or defend ourselves from them. This is how you loose your
humility, and become proud and arrogant.
We must be humble before men, but
mostly before God. He is GOD and we must learn our place before Him.
(Isaiah 66:1-2) Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is
my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would
build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has
made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble
and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
There is no room for selfishness in
the presence of God. Only the humble may be with Him. To be able to receive
from God, we must first empty ourselves.
(Isaiah 57:15-19) For thus
says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is
Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a
contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the
heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be
angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I
made. Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I
hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own
heart. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore
comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace,
to the far and to the near," says the LORD, "and I will heal him.
The opposite of humility is
arrogance, pride and conceit, believing yourself to be more than what you
really are. But at the end of our lives, what are we left with? Nothing! It is
better to empty ourselves to receive from God, than to believe we own something
and at the end realize that we have nothing.
(Proverbs
18:12) Before destruction a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before
honor.
Today we saw what humility is in
relation to God. Tomorrow we will see the effect humility has in our lives.
PRAYER
Lord, I recognize that I haven’t been
humble. Please forgive me. I let pride come into my heart. I don’t want this
for my life.
I don’t want you to oppose me for
being proud. I need your grace to be humble. Today, I decide to submit to you
and humble myself before your presence. Lord, I want to clean my hands and
purify my soul.
Today, I recognize that you are high
and lifted up, and that you live forever. Your are holy and perfect. In your
presence there is no room for selfishness, since you are all in all. Therefore,
I take pride out of my life and I present myself before you with a contrite
heart and a humble spirit. Only you can fill me up and give me life. I will
follow the example Jesus set for me, by being meek and having a humble heart.
[Isaiah 57:15; James 4:6-10, Matthew
11:29]
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