Title: How Can I Be Humble?
Contents
Someone asked St Augustine. “What is the supreme virtue of Christianity?” Then he replied, “Humble.” Then I asked him what was the second great virtue, and he answered again 'humility'. When asked again the third time, what is the greatest virtue of Christianity, the third answer was also 'humility.
Gentlemen, humility is a very important virtue in Christianity. And for all Christians, and for you and me, humility is so important. Because “God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). And the Bible speaks of humility:
“The humble will eat and be satisfied.” (Psalm 22:26) “The reward of humility is riches and glory and life.” (Proverbs 22:4) “A proud man will bring him lowly, but a humble heart will find honor.” (Proverbs 22:4) .” (Proverbs 29:23) “The pride of a man’s heart precedes destruction, and humility precedes honor.” (Proverbs 18:12) “God scorns the proud, but is gracious to the humble. ” (Proverbs 3:34) “God beautifies the humble with salvation” (Psalm 149:4) “The Lord sustains the humble” (Psalm 147:6) “The Lord has heard the desire of the humble. ” (Psalm 10:17)
In other words, whether we continue to receive God's grace and love and become successful, or whether we fail to receive God's grace and love and become failures depends on humility. So, what is humility? Would it be humility if I raised my hand in front of someone taller than me, bent over, made a strange expression on my face, and lowered my voice softly and quietly?
no. Rather, it is just an abomination that adds another sin of hypocrisy. In Christianity, humility does not mean humiliation or hypocrisy that deceives one's true self. Nor is it masochism, which takes pleasure in degrading and mistreating oneself.
Christian humility is the attitude of deeply realizing one's own ugliness and shortcomings before God, bowing his head in front of him, clinging to him, and relying on him. So, to humble oneself and exalt the Lord, to depend on the Lord without relying on oneself, and to boast in the Lord without boasting in oneself is the true humility of Christianity.
For example, it is a well-known fact that monkeys are good at climbing trees. But the monkey said to himself, "Ahem, if there's an animal that climbs trees better than me, why don't you go somewhere?" Instead of saying, “God, no matter how good I am at climbing trees, it is a God-given talent. And even monkeys sometimes fall from trees, so please don't let me fall off the tree and get a concussion!” That attitude is humility.
And no matter how much driving experience you have, how well you drive, and how confident you are, you say, “God, hold the steering wheel and keep me from getting into an accident!” It's a humble attitude to ask the Lord every time you drive. "Ahem, if there's someone who drives better than me, where can I go?" And it's not humility to show off your driving skills.
However, the operation that I was 100% sure of was wrong, and he died a few days later. Then the wife said to the doctor, “No, Doctor, I had surgery because I was almost 100% sure of the success rate of the operation. What happened to this?” And I resented the doctor. The doctor had overconfidence in his own abilities and the operation was unsuccessful.
When I think about it, I think it would have been nice if the doctor had prayed to God so humbly before surgery. “God, I have been an oncologist in less than 100 years. But God has been a doctor for all kinds of diseases from the beginning of the ages, and He is the One who gives life to the dead, so please be with us in the operation. God help me with this operation!” Hallelujah!
Professor James Simpson of the University of Edinburgh discovered a pain reliever so patients could undergo surgery without pain. And it was such a big discovery for the medical community. One day, during his lecture, a student asked Professor Simpson. “If you were to name one of the most meaningful and precious discoveries in your life, what would it be?
To this question, all the other students thought to themselves, "Hey, what a stupid question you're asking? Of course, you're going to answer the discovery of painkillers!" But Professor Simpson bowed his head and thought for a while before saying this. “The most precious discovery of my life was the discovery that I was a sinner and that Jesus was my Savior.” Hallelujah!
Folks, the Bible says. “What does the Lord ask of you? Are you not walking humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) Gentlemen, God is looking for the humble today, and He wants to give good things to the humble. But how on earth can we learn such humility? Regarding this, the Lord says: “Take my yoke upon you and learn, for I am meek and lowly in spirit, and you will find rest” (Matthew 11:29).
In other words, we can learn humility through Jesus, who was the most humble in the world. And we can learn humility by imitating many great men of faith who lived a humble life by imitating the humble Jesus. Everyone, look at Jesus. “He was in the form of God in the beginning, but did not consider equality with God to be robbery, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-7). In other words, Jesus, the King of kings, came to this earth in the form of a lowly and lowly servant.
And the Bible says, “He was humble and rode on a donkey, the colt of a yoke” (Matthew 21:5). He washed his feet” (John 13:4-5), the Bible says. Many people want to be exalted, to boast, and to be treated, but Jesus humbled himself, never showed himself off, and lived a humble life of serving others rather than being entertained. And the Bible says that we must imitate the humble heart of Jesus. (Philippians 2:5)
Look at Moses. When he came down after praying on Mount Sinai for 40 days, his face shone so bright that the people could not look at him. Then he said, “Ahem, look at me. What do you think? Aren't you flashy? Are you very spiritual?” And instead of boasting about himself, he covered his face with a towel.
And in the Bible there is no mention of him continuing to cover his face with a towel. That is, the brilliance disappeared after a while. Why? Perhaps Moses prayed to God like this. “God, my face is so shiny that the people are so dazzling that they can’t approach it, so please take out this brilliance.” But today's proud people would have prayed like this. “God, help me keep the brilliance on my face! So do not let the saints dare come before me, but only respect me from afar!”
See also the apostle Paul. He was a well-educated man at the time, and he had a good background to the point that he also had Roman citizenship. So I trusted myself so much that I was filled with pride. However, when he met Jesus, he changed his name from Saul (the greatest) to Paul (the lesser one). And, referring to himself as ‘the one who was born untermly’ (1 Corinthians 15:8) and ‘the chief of sinners’ (1 Tim. 1:15), he said, “I am the least of men. I am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God” (1 Corinthians 15:9).
And God gave him a wonderful grace to humble himself, allowing him to write 13 books, which is almost half of the New Testament, and used it as an apostle to establish churches wherever he went. And what is even more surprising is that God implanted a messenger of Satan, or disease, into the body so that the Apostle Paul would not become proud again. As a result, the Apostle Paul had to be proud so he could not be proud.
Gentlemen, just as water flows and fills the low places, so God's grace flows and fills the humble and humble. And God wants to show grace to the humble today. By all means, I pray that you will continue to receive God's grace and love because you are humble in this immigrant and foreign life.
Of course, it is very difficult to be humble overnight, but let's do our best and keep trying to be humble. And let's pray to God like this this year. “God, make me a man of humility!” Amen!