Tag Archives: Humility

We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are

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One of my favorite songs by Rich Mullins is entitled We are Not as Strong as we Think we Are. It’s not a song that many of us have heard; I heard it for the first time when I was in college.

I was going through a rough time, that odd point in life when you aren’t sure where your place is in life; what God is calling you to; what you will do. I always enjoyed Rich Mullins’ music and I bought his CD (yes, I’m so old I remember CDs!) Songs. And I hear this song. The words still resonate with me today:

We are frail, we are fearfully and wonderfully made . . . we must be awfully small and not strong as we think we are.

That song summed up the tension of life so well to me. We are frail and weak, but we are also fearfully and wonderfully made.

But we need the humility to understand that we are not a strong as we think we are.

Listen to what Jesus says today in Matthew 23:11-12:

The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

We must humble ourselves. We must arrogance has no place in our hearts. We stand on God’s grace and mercy. And we are not as strong as we think w are.

Our strength comes not from ourselves, but from Him. Our ability to stand is not our own, but His. Our life is not our life, but His.

Today, know you are fearfully and wonderfully made. But also know that you are frail and needy.

And know that when we humble ourselves, realize our weakness, we will find His strength. Today, may we live with humility. And may we find His strength.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Boasting in Weakness

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Boasting is not something we are supposed to do. The Bible tells us in Proverbs, it’s the pride that goes before the fall. If we brag, if we boast, if we get too full of ourselves, trouble will come.

Boasting is not good.

Yet today, we see Paul talking about boasting! He says – I will boast. You would think such a statement would be something that would be leading him to trouble.  Listen to what he says in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10:

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul says – I will boast in my weakness. For in my weakness, I know Christ’s power. In my weakness I am strong.

That’s something to boast about.

That goes so different from our world. Our world tells us to boast about how awesome we are. How great we are. How perfect we are. It’s about us.

Paul says to that – No! I will no boast in anything about me, but I will boast in Christ thought me. Every great thing in my (and our) life is no because of us.

It’s because of Him.

We have not earned it. We can’t earn it. We can’t boast in ourselves. We boast in Him. As I tell folks at Asbury, if anything I do is good, He gets credit. I’ll take credit for the bad stuff.

His love, His mercy, His grace, these are gifts. And when we realize how weak we are, we can boast even more in them. That’s what Paul is saying. He has realized how much he does not deserve God’s grace, and God gives it any way.

Which makes Him love God even more!

So, today, don’t boast in yourself. Boast in God. Boast in His goodness, mercy, and grace. In our weakness, His strength is made perfect. When we are lesser, He is greater.

If you’re going to boast, boast about your weakness. And when we know that we are weak, we will find that He is strong.

And that’s something to boast about.

Greatness

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What makes you great?  What defines greatness?  What leads to a great life?

What would you say to these things?

In our lives, very few of us want to be mediocre.  Most of us want to live a life that would be “great.”

Ok, true.  What does that mean, though?

Is a great life all the material possessions you would want?  Is is power?  Is is success?  Is is great wealth?  Is it respect?

Greatness may mean different things to each of us.

And, we haven’t even hit upon faith.  Which is the key issue.  As we talk about greatness, I wish the Bible had something to say about it.

Oh wait, it does.  Listen to what Jesus says today in Matthew 18:

About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Greatness is not found in the stuff of this world.  Greatness is not found in wealth, or power, of possessions, or fame. That’s not the stuff of greatness.  Greatness, true life-giving greatness, true life changing greatness, it is found in this.

Turning from your sins and humbling coming to God.

That’s the thing with God. To become great, we must first become humble. To know, we must lay down our lives.  To be free, we must take on His yoke. To become great, we must become humble.

Like a little child.

A little child trusts.  Hopes. Believes.  Loves.  Cares.  laughs.  Lives.

Maybe, just maybe, that’s greatness. When was the last time you were at peace?  Of all things that the world’s “greatness” can offer, that’s the one thing it can never offer.  Peace.

When was the last time you felt that peace? When was the last time you felt that greatness?

Today, what type of greatness are you chasing? Today, may we chase the greatness of God.

Humility

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Humility can be a dirty word.

Or if not a dirty word, it can be a word that we don’t like or aren’t really fond of.  When we think of humility, we aren’t really sure what it means to be humble.  The one thing we may think about humility is this.

We are supposed to think that we don’t matter. We are supposed to think that we are unimportant. We are supposed to think that we have no great value.

That is not right. That is not humility.

You do matter.  You are important.  You are of great worth.

Humility is not beating up on yourself.  Humility is not putting down on yourself.  Humility is not about debasing yourself of thinking yourself worthless.

I had a professor in seminary that used to put it this way – “Humility is self-forgetfulness.”  It’s not about beating yourself up. It’s about forgetting about yourself and thinking of others first.

Listen to what Paul writes in Philippians today:

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

Paul says, think about others first. Think of their needs. Their of their feelings. Think of them before we think of ourselves.

We forget about ourselves and focus on them.  How we can help others.  Love others. Serve others.

Why?

Why should we do that? Why are we called to do that.

Well, as Christians, we are called to seek to be like Christ.  To know Him. To love Him. And to love others as He did.  And listen as Paul continues, to what Jesus did:

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Jesus was humble.  Jesus came not for Himself, but for us. And as Christians, He calls us not to live just for ourselves, but to live for others.

Because in a life of humility, a life of service, a life of giving ourselves away for His sake, we find more life that we’ll ever find in living for ourselves.

Yes, we are called to be humble.  No humility is not what we’ve always thought that is was.  Humility is about forgetting about ourselves and focusing on others.

Today, and each day, may we be humble.

Humility and Leadership

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It seems like the readings each day from 1 Peter are really speaking to me. Today, as a I was reading, 1 Peter 5 spoke to me:

1 Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you 2 to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it -not for sordid gain but eagerly. 3 Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away. 5 In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for
“God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.

As I was reading through this, what spoke to me was this notion of humility. That is a virtue that our culture doesn’t really care for. And, honestly, its a culture that we as Christians don’t always care for.

And I’ll be even more honest its a virtue that is easy to forget.  I do a lot of reading in Church Leadership. I’ve been through a lot of teaching in Church Leadership. And I’ve very thankful for it, because I think it’s made me a better leader.

And the think that being a leader (either in church, in work, in your family, in the school, wherever) can whisper to you is this – “It’s all up to you!”

We can buy into the myth of our own self importance.  We forget to humble ourselves.

With all that I’d been taught, I’d forgotten that.  I’m not really all that important.  I’m really not.  The fate of the free world is not upon my shoulders. The future of the church is not dependent upon me. Sometimes, I forget.  I forget those things.  I think it all depends upon me.

We need to remember who we are.  We are not as strong or as important as we think we are.  We are not.  None of us.

Now, that sounds depressing, doesn’t it?  That sounds like we are not much.  Quite the contrarey. Since we aren’t much, there’s a freedom there that comes from just depending and trusting in God.  A freedom that says, I’m not much God, but I’m yours.  I’m not much, God, but I am who you want me to be.  I’m not much, but I’m your child.

And, if we are child of the King, what more could we want to be?

It isn’t until we submit the King, though, that we remember that we are His.

Today, remember, God is bigger that you. And it’s not all up to you.  Humble yourself. Trust.  Depend.  Listen.  Pray.

God is bigger.  May we humble ourselves before Him.