Philippians 2:1-9a (NIV) 1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name
Jesus did not grasp for the power, prestige, privileges or popularity that could have been His. He did not pull rank because He would not buy into the ranking system of this world. Rather, He emptied Himself that He might humble Himself and submit Himself to whatever God wanted.
To be humble is to submit our life to God. Humility does not grasp for rank, nor feed on the empty opinion of others. Humility has an attractiveness about it and a power to it. The main power is to make peace, because humble people are not vulnerable to many of the weaknesses that make for conflict. It is hard to drive wedges of blame into the hearts of humble people because they are ready to absorb the blows and to accept whatever fault is really theirs. This is the irony of humility. By submitting to God we rise above the pettiness of people.
Now, lest I paint too perfect a picture of the humble, it does not mean to be without struggles. Moses was said to be the most humble person upon the face of the earth, but he had his struggles with Pharaoh, he had struggles with the people of Israel, he had some struggles within himself, but the struggle that redeemed him again and again was the struggle to remain submissive and compliant to the will of God.
Don’t try to be humble. Just remember what you have received from God and that will make you humble enough. Look back and remember. Look ahead in obedience and praise, and the gift of humility will come gently and genuinely into your life.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 13, 1991
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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