Be Humble
by Bob Gaudi
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.” –1 Peter 5:6-7
A few weeks ago Pastor Sean touched on reciprocal ethics during his series of messages on 1 Peter. My takeaway from that particular message was that God’s grace is our greatest blessing. It is through His grace and His grace alone that we are who we are. This means we owe everything we are and everything we have to God and God alone.
Now we know it is true that for the most part humans work for what we earn and accumulate. Seldom is a “living” and a comfortable existence just handed to us on a proverbial silver platter. In most cases we must earn what we receive. Know this however: it is also true we could not apply ourselves or even know how to work and earn a comfortable existence were it not for God’s grace. I do not care how smart or how accomplished you are—who dealt you the ‘smart cards’ and who gave you the talent you have?
Okay, so God is good and through His grace we exist and have a means to salvation even though we are sinners. This salvation, of course, is through God’s only son, Jesus, whom God gave to save us from our sin (God’s grace again). Remember, Jesus was the one who literally loved us more than life itself—He gave His life for us. Contemplate that for just a minute. Do you love someone more than life? Jesus did and still does.
So what are we to do? Lots of things: love and obey God, love others, believe in Jesus, and accept Him as your Savior. As Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40, we are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind, and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. If we truly love and obey the Lord, the rest naturally follows.
I would like to point out one more part of this wonderful formula for salvation that comes through God’s grace: humble yourself before God. As Isaiah wrote in 26:12, “Lord, You establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished You have done for us.” Again, we owe it ALL to God, so humble yourself before God and pay it back. Reciprocate through humble worship of and service to God, and by service to others. The apostle Paul eloquently addressed humility and caring for others in his letters to the Philippians and the Ephesians when he said, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Phil. 2:3-4) and “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Eph. 4:1-2).
Jesus quoted from Psalm 37:11 in Matthew 5:5 when He said, “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.” Humbling yourself before God through service to Him and others pays big dividends for us all. In Philippians 2:5-11 Paul points out that Jesus himself, “Who, being in very nature God”…“humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.” Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, set the highest example of humility that could ever be set.
Heavenly Father, we come before You knowing that all we are we owe to You. We belong to You and we are Yours. As Your humble children, please lift us up and enable us to worship and serve You in a manner that is pleasing to You. Direct our steps and keep our path straight and true. In the strong name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.