Monday, December 17, 2007

Humble Yourself or Be Humbled

Humble yourself, or be humbled.

"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6

I remember this statement made in Beth Moore's book, Praying God's Word: "If we don't presently have an issue that is actively humbling us, we veer with disturbing velocity toward arrogance and self-righteousness" (pg. 58).

As I have grown in my walk with Jesus Christ, 24+ years, He has graciously revealed pockets of my heart where humility has not had its way.
Several weeks ago, I was praying with some urgency that God would give me a humble heart. I don't want to just put on humility; I want to be genuinely humble. I desire humility to overflow from my walk with Jesus Christ, as I live and breathe.

Within the first 7 days of beginning to pray that prayer, I had 3 different individuals 'correct' me. Oh, my prideful heart wanted to defend myself but soon I realized that God was answering my prayer. After all, how could He make me a humble person if He didn't provide opportunities to practice humility?

I needed to follow-up with one of the individuals and that morning in my devotional reading, I read: "Peace cannot be found except with a lowly heart. And a lowly heart is not something that you can conjure up. Meekness of heart is a gift from God every time you experience it. The perfect time to experience a humble heart is when someone disapproves of you, or when you experience inward temptations and weakness. Learn to get used to both of these trials: They are a part of life." (The Seeking Heart-Fenelon; pg.165).

God gives grace to the humble....

Diane

No comments: