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Let's Stop Bragging About Our Humility, Please.

My biggest strength!? I'm so glad you asked!!! I'M SO HUMBLE ABOUT EVERYTHING.

Ummm. Yeah. So humble. Have you ever heard those people that go on and on about how humble they are?  Most likely we have all said or at least thought it at some point.  It's kind of interesting how we take the most pride in the very fact we aren't prideful.  I mean, does that even make sense...?

It's true, God does call us to live with a sense of humility in our lives.  However, this is one of His commands that we can't exactly practice... That probably won't work out very well.  If we spend all of our efforts making sure we aren't being too prideful, this is what our thoughts may become:

*Whoa I hope everyone saw that cool thing I just did.  And now I hope they see how casual I'm playing it. I'm just so talented AND humble!*

Yeah I don't think that's really the idea.  If we concentrate on our own humility, then we are doing the exact opposite of what the word even means.

Let's take a look at this passage in 2 Chronicles 7:2-3...

The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "He is good; His love endures forever."  

THAT is what it means to be humbled.  I hope you noticed these people weren't thinking about themselves at all when they experienced the truest form of humility.  Instead, they were unable to even stand because the Lord is THAT AWESOME.  There are some pretty great people in the world, but none of them have ever caused me to fall to the ground instantly just because their presence alone is that perfect and overwhelming.  Our Father? He shines so brightly of LOVE, JOY, and POWER that we cannot even fathom his perfection.  

Humility is realizing that who we are is a FAR cry from who our God is.  There is no way we can come close to His holy, righteous, kind, forgiving, just self.

We tend to think humility is not bragging about how cool (we think) we are.  Instead, it's not even noticing what good we have done because we are so caught up in living for our Savior that we can't imagine NOT serving Him in our every move.

The sermon at church today (sic'em UBC) was about humility, and this is what I gained from the sermon:

You don't become more humble by trying to be more humble, and you don't do good by trying to do good.  You gain these things by truly living with Christ at the center of all thoughts.  Live FOR Jesus, live LIKE Jesus.


He must become greater; I must become less. (John 3:30)

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