Oh Lord it's hard to be humble when your perfect in every way...
The song continues, I can't wait to look in the mirror cause I get better looking each day. Oh Lord it's hard to be humble but I'm doing the best that I can.
The past couple of weeks have been focused on Micah 6:8
Act Justly, Love Mercy, walk humbly with your God.
What does it mean to walk humbly?
Humble is the ability to see yourself accurately and rightly for who you are. The disposition of valuing or assessing oneself appropriately.
We have lost the ability to be critical of ourselves and the impact we have on others around us.
Being humble and 'walking' (living or day to day life) humbly with God means we must see ourselves through Gods eyes, all our flaws, mistakes, and misdeeds are realize we are no different from any other human being on the planet.
We need to stop connecting everything that takes place to ourselves.
We have to stop connecting every experience, conversation, social media post, news broadcast, the list could go on forever, with ourselves.
Everyday we hear and see messages that tell us to focus on our own comfort, our own gain. What do I want? What would make me happy? Where should I go? How will this affect me? All of these questions lead to I have a right to want this, to be happy, to go where I want, to not be affected by this. We need to remove ourselves from center stage.
We need to remember "It's Not About YOU"!
We need to see ourselves and everyone we encounter through the eyes of others. We need to see them and ourselves through the eyes of God.
When you look at your children you see their differences, you see their strengths and weaknesses, but they are your children and you love them. This how God sees us.
Walking humbly with God is the result of truly living out Act Justly and Love Mercy. In both of these you have to take the perspective of the other person Not your own. The more we do this, the more we practice this, the better we become at walking humbly.
Confidence is not the opposite or Humble
Arrogance is the opposite of humble. Arrogance is an attitude of superiority, presumptuous claims or thoughts. God wants us to be confident. Scriptures however warn us not to get 'puffed up'. Let me give you an example. Lets say you are a smoker and you came to understand that God no longer wanted you to smoke because it was harming you and you were then able to quit. THAT IS AWESOME! However, if when you see others who are smoking and trying to quit and not being successful and think to yourself oh well they aren't doing enough to try, or they aren't really trying. You have taken what God has done in your life and allowing it to puff you up as if you are better than they are.
You can speak to someone confidently that they can quit smoking, because you did, but that is where you need to stop. Your timeline and your path will not be the same as theirs. Walking humbly means that you see the struggle not from your perspective but from theirs!
How then do you walk humbly with God?
You walk reflectively. Remembering those areas of your life that while they may be aligned with God now they weren't always. By realizing that everyday you fail God and make choices that hurt yourself and others. By knowing who you truly are, especially in those times when no one else sees you. By acknowledging all those thoughts that go on in your head that you would never speak to anyone.
Knowing all of this and being honest with all of this and being confident that the Creator of the Universe loves you just as you are, and THAT HE LOVES EVERYONE JUST AS HE DOES YOU.
I truly believe that being in community with others sets the stage for walking humbly. If we are isolated our minds will run amok and the ability to walk humbly is greatly reduced. We need opportunities to learn what others perspectives are, for them to have an opportunity to challenge us or our perspective.
Getting to know others that are not like you, being open to learning from others, regularly gathering with others is critical to walking humbly with God. It is the spiritual gym for exercising and developing our humility.
I want to leave you with one last thought.
Walking Humbly is one of the Keys to being happy
Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only our of having more of it than the next person. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or cleaver, of good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about.
C.S. Lewis
If this is the cause of attitude, we will find ourselves in a constant state or worry, panic, anxiety, and always on the look out for what the next thing is to take us up another notch. There is no happiness in this. There is no joy or enjoyment of what we have.
What will you do with what you have read today?
Here are some action steps you may consider:
Join us on Sunday to be involved in community, focusing on God and learning from others
Have a conversation with someone who believes differently than you with the goal of seeing through their eyes not to change their belief
Review the following scriptures:
Psalm 131:1, Isaiah 53:7-8, Isaiah 57:15, Micah 6:8, Matthew 11:29, Philippians 2:3-11, James 4:10
Personal Note: As I sit here putting this together I am amazed at what God has done in my life. LOL, I know my strengths and at times ALL to well known my weaknesses, yet He has put a passion in me to encourage each person to read scripture and to let them know they can learn from it for themselves. I welcome your thoughts and comments.
