First, We Become Humble
Then, when greatness no longer matters to us, we are made great.
Great spiritual leaders do not realize their greatness, because they have first become humble.
“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” – Matthew 23:12
Humility before God and man does not come easy to us.? The grip of pride is strong upon our hearts. We may be convinced that there is no escape. There is. God is our helper. He will deliver us from pride as surely as He forgives and redeems. He can impart the humility of Christ into our lives. It is, after all, His purpose to express the life of His Son through us
It is not easy to describe humility, but we know it when we see it.? At the core of a generous heart is the seed of humility.? In the soul of a servant, a humble man or woman lives.
The admonition to humility is phrased as a promise. The humble will be exalted.? The sanctified irony of the matter is that is exaltation is your motive for being humble, then you are faking it and your humility is not real.? But if it is based upon a genuine assessment of your life in the light of God’s glory, it is very real and that reality brings dignity. .
Father, since I have no humility of my about which to boast, I come in the humility of Jesus Christ. Purge me of pride and enable me to walk in the steps of Jesus as He walks this path again through me. Amen
Jesus Humbled Himself
Mary was flesh and blood and Jesus was her son, flesh, blood, and connected with her people.? We think very highly of Mary through the window of sacred history, but others saw the designation of Jesus as her son to be a justification for derision. It was not her reputation for having conceived Him out of wedlock at this point that framed their curses. That would come up at some point, but this was subtler. They accused Him of being common and familiar. They knew Him and His brothers and their familiarity bred contempt.
He was common and He was uncommon. As the son of Mary, He had history and culture, family and traditions. He was given the gifts of language, nuance, familial customs, memories, and relationships, but He was always, also the Son of God and that reality was easily obscured to those who knew Him best as a carpenter.
We must be careful not to allow familiarity to obscure holiness to our view. The ordinary may not be so ordinary at all. Our familiarity with the things of God can be a liability if we forget to seek the sacred amidst the profane.
Paul Became Humble and Great Through Weakness.
"… I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” – II Corinthians 12:9
Whatever the thorn in Paul’s flesh was, we have all gained from it. That is because, whether we admit it or not, we are all rather thorny people. We could spend our days and nights picking at the thorns and begging for their removal, or we could move forward in grace.
We harbor delusions of self-sufficiency and adequacy because we simply do not understand the real source of real strength. Pride, ego, and self-centeredness blind us to our needy state. We deny the thorns if they don’t go away on their own and cover them with layers of hypocrisy.
Get real!
Worship is not an illusion. Nor is a time of glorified denial as we display the selves we wish to project to our brothers and sisters. We don’t come to church to parade our perfection.? Worship is about getting real with God and one another so that God can become real to us.
In worship, we acknowledge real strength – that it is God’s and not ours. We are commanded to be strong in the Lord – not in the flesh, not in our strength, not in our own will power. As we come, we bow before the Lord – and that is with humility and recognition of our own weakness. It is Christ’s power and not our own, we need to overcome that over which we are powerless. When we are weak, then we are strong because we rely upon the God of strength. When we come to that realization, we can truly worship.
True Love Makes Us Humble Before God and Humanity.
If it is not love, it is not true and is not of God.
It is not just. It is not rational.
Radical love that appears irrational defies logic and disarms evil. Even if something is factual, it is not true if it is not spoken in love... at least not for any who profess loyalty to the Lord of love.
In a loveless world, all manner of evil is possible and cycles of retaliation and recrimination never end.
When love begins to reign, God is exalted and unimagined possibilities emerge.
Our Little Misses in Life Make Us Humble Enough to Lead.
1975 - Virginia Tech computer lab. A stack of punched cards 9 inches high or higher is in my hand, each with one statement of code. After waiting in line at midnight, I insert them into the feeder for the giant computer. Within a few minutes the printer sends out pages and pages and pages of repeated text ---- error --- error --- error .
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It would not even read my name.
Somewhere, along the line, early on, I had made a syntax mistake or some other kind of error.
The computer was unforgiving ... and even into the days of DOS and, to some extent, even today, requiring precise language (Thank goodness Google often knows what I mean.).
Truth and precision seem to matter in the mathematical realm.
It sure makes me appreciate grace. Nevertheless ...
" You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently." Psalm 119:4 (ESV)
A Realistic Assessment of Our Role in the Big Picture of God's Leadership Fits Us For Humble Greatness in Leading People.
In contrast to trust, dependence, reliance and subjugation to human leadership that always dies, even our own leadership with its termination date in the future, God models leadership that lasts.
Do you want to leave a legacy? Check out the priorities of God from Psalm 146. To the extent that our leadership, and any sphere of influence, reflect and honor these, something lasts when we are dead.
These are the things God does:
Here is a model for people/leaders who want something to survive after their plans perish with them.
Failure Humbles and Shapes Us into Usable Leaders.
Luke 22:52-62: Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple police, and the elders who had come for him, "Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness!" Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house. But Peter was following at a distance. When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. Then a servant-girl, seeing him in the firelight, stared at him and said, "This man also was with him." But he denied it, saying, "Woman, I do not know him." A little later someone else, on seeing him, said, "You also are one of them." But Peter said, "Man, I am not!" Then about an hour later still another kept insisting, "Surely this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean." But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are talking about!" At that moment, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.
A Prayer of the One Humbled by Failure
Before the rooster crows, three times thou wilt deny. Three times you'll disavow my name and swear by earth and sky. Three times, not one or two or three, you'll vow we've never met Three times you'll protest, shout, and curse, three times, three times, and yet ...
And yet I know your love is real as real as fear, and as this night. I know that you'll return to me. I know you'll see the light.
I know these things and know know them deeply and you were meant to follow. But this is the pill of bitter pain that you must somehow swallow.
Three times you will deny me now though now you vow to stay the course. I know that you believe your strength but this you cannot win by force. Three times you'll drink the cup of failure and choke upon its grief. The cock will crow and you will weep But there will come a moment of relief.
I will meet you in a morning when your head is hung in shame. I'll meet you by the seashore and you will call my name.
I'll meet you where your pain meets mine and walk the miles with you once more. I'll ask you once again, my friend, "Do you love me, like you said before?"
This time, Peter, don't you know that love is calling ever stronger? It calls the servant who feeds the sheep. It calls to walk a little longer.
Three times you nodded, "No. No. No." Though just before you were so brave. Today I tell you, "Go. Go. Go." Your "yes" will take you to a grave. But you will go, though bound and tied to bear a cross in a distant place. You choose the path for you choose me. I go with you ... No more disgrace.
Let's have an important conversation:
Defender of orthodox Roman Catholicism
3 周Humility is an absolute essential in spiritual development. I’m trying to concentrate on the quality more and more.
Organizational and Business development consultant who ROCKS THE HOUSE!!
3 周I have always been humble ?? and kind. Self improvement is an everyday process.