Young Adults' Group

Grace To The Humble

by Pastor Mark
July 31, 2014

The challenge of being humble

An important quality of being a servant of the Lord is humility. It is indeed a most difficult characteristic for us to cultivate. The tendency to be proud is ever so real. When we look at our lives, we tend to think about what we want to do. We become proud of our own ways and achievements. We may even end up despising and looking down on others. If we allow our selfish pride to get the better of us, then we would not be able to become the servant that the Lord meant for us to be. 

The humility of Christ

“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Phil 2:8)

There is no greater example than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in displaying what true humility is. Even though Jesus was co-equal with God, He emptied Himself of the rights and privileges of being divine and took the form of a man…a bondservant. He deprived Himself of the power and authority that He had so that He could fulfil what God wanted Him to do. He humbled Himself so that He would be able to become obedient to the cross…even to death. The Lord is indeed such a wonderful example of what true humility is.

Grace to the humble

“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)

As we seek to learn from the example of the Lord Jesus, we recognize that it is not easy to be humble. Yet the Lord grants grace to those who are. The writer James made reference to Proverbs 3:34 as a basis for his understanding of humility. When those who are proud resist the Lord, He would resist them. This means that the proud will never get away with their arrogant ways. The Lord will go against what they seek to do. But to those who are willing to humble themselves, the Lord will give more grace. Grace will be given for us to submit to the ways of the Lord…to obey Him. James wrote further, “Therefore submit to God.” (James 4:7) When we depend on the grace of God, we can learn to submit to the Lord and we should be able to follow His ways.

God will exalt us

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (James 4:10)

Our humility is to be cultivated in the sight of the Lord. When we come before God and see Him for all that He is, we would truly humble ourselves. Who are we that we should think anything of ourselves or to have any pride in the eyes of the Lord? Yet there will be those who are drawn to their own ways…the ways of the world…of the evil one. They would think more of themselves and not God. When we seek to humble ourselves before God, He will surely exalt us in time. Let’s be challenged to follow the example of the Lord in being humble and obedient. Let’s seek to develop this quality of humility in not exalting ourselves but to humble ourselves in His sight always.

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