Title How can I be humble ?
Contents
James 4:6 How can I be humble?
Someone asked St. Augustine. "What is the greatest virtue of Christianity?" Then he replied 'humility'. Then I asked him what was the second great virtue, and he replied 'humility' again. When asked again the third time what the great virtues of Christianity are, the third time he answered '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 says about 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 man will be humbled when he is proud, but when he is humble of heart he will find honor." (Proverbs 29:23)
"The pride of a man's heart precedes destruction, and humility precedes honor." (Proverbs 18:12) "God laughs at 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) "You have heard the desire of the humble." (Psalm 10:17)
That is, 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? Is that humility if you raise your hand, crouch down, make a strange expression on your face, and lower your voice quietly?
Rather, it is just an abomination that adds another sin of hypocrisy. In Christianity, humility does not mean humiliation or hypocrisy to deceive oneself. It is not masochism, however, that takes a strange pleasure by downgrading one's self.
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 of the Lord without boasting in oneself is the true humility of Christianity.
For example, it is a well-known fact that monkeys can climb trees well. But the monkey said to himself, "Ahem, if there's an animal that climbs trees better than me, come and see me. Instead of saying, "God, no matter how good I am at climbing a tree, it is a gift from God. And even a monkey sometimes falls from a tree, 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 in Korea, how good you are at driving, and how confident you are, say, "God, hold the steering wheel and keep me from getting into an accident!" And it's a humble attitude to pray every time you drive. It is not humility to show off your driving skills.
However, for a while, his face looked not very good, and he was hospitalized at Seoul National University Hospital for liver cancer. However, the medical doctor there said that this cancer can be cured with only surgery, and he is almost 100% sure of the success rate of the operation.
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 am almost 100% sure of the success rate of the operation. And I resented the doctor.
The doctor had overconfidence in his own abilities and the operation failed. When I think about it, I think that it would have been nice if the doctor had prayed to God so humbly before the operation.
"God, it has been less than 100 years since I became a cancer specialist. But God has been a doctor for all kinds of diseases since ages ago, and He is a healer of the dead, so please be with me in the operation. God help me with this operation!" Hallelujah !
Professor James Simpson of the University of Edinburgh has discovered a pain reliever that allows patients to undergo surgery without pain. And it was a huge discovery for the medical community.
One day, during his lecture, a student asked Professor Simpson. "If you were asked to name one of the most significant and precious discoveries in your life, what would it be?"
To this question, all the other students said to themselves, "Hey, what stupid question are you asking? Of course, you're going to answer that it's the discovery of painkillers!" I thought
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? Is it not that you walk humbly with your God?" (Mic 6:8)
Ladies and 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 said: “Take my yoke upon you and learn, for I am gentle and lowly in spirit, and you will find rest” (Matthew 11:29).
That is, 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, but did not consider equality with God to be robbery, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and became in the likeness of men.” (Phil 2:6-7) The Bible says. That is, 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 took off his robe, took a towel, and girded it around his waist, and filled a basin with water. 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. (Phil 2:5)
Look at Moses. When he came down from Mount Sinai praying for 40 days, his face shone so bright that the people could not look at him. Then he said, "Ahem, look at me. How are you flashy? It's very spiritual, isn't it?" He didn't brag about himself, but rather 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 radiant that the people are so dazzling that they can’t get close to it.
But today's proud people probably prayed like this. "God, give my face a dazzling brilliance! So don't let the saints dare come before me, but only respect me from afar!"
See also the apostle Paul. He was well-educated at the time and 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 born of infertility' (1 Corinthians 15:8) and 'the chief of sinners' (1 Tim. 1:15), he said, "I am the least of men. To be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. He is not worthy of it." (1 Corinthians 15:9) and turned into a humble person.
And God gave him a wonderful grace to humble himself, allowing him to write 13 books, almost half of the New Testament, and used it as an apostle to establish churches wherever he went.
Gentlemen, just as water flows and fills the low places, so the grace of God flows and fills the humble and humble. And God wants to show grace to the humble today.
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 to keep trying to be humble. And pray to God like this. "God, make me humble!" Amen !