DAY 19 - SIT DOWN, BE HUMBLE
ZACH ATWOOD, YA EVENTS & OPERATIONS TEAM LEAD
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Colossians 3:12
Throughout the Bible and in Christian culture, there is a lot of talk about humility and how important it is for your walk with Christ. But, if I’m being completely honest, I have no idea what true humility looks like.
The world defines humility as someone who is generally gracious, someone who cares for others, and someone who isn’t all about themselves. Pretty light, low standards, but nothing controversial here.
Unfortunately, I go to the extreme and interpret humility as some dark form of self-hate. I think “You shouldn’t feel good about doing that. If it brings joy, it’s pride, and that’s from the devil himself!” or “If you were truly humble, people shouldn’t know you had any part of that.” For some reason, when I think of humility, I envision the little demon assistants in Hercules that turn themselves into worms and call themselves worthless… I know, I’m odd…
However, the way that God defines humility is different than the way the world defines it, and, thank God, is very different than the way I have interpreted it! Humility under God is simply this; freedom from pride. Simple to say, but difficult to carry out. The world holds humility to low standards while God’s definition of humility requires more from us. Humility under Him requires that we:
walk with child-like faith (Matthew 18:1-4)
remain repentant (Isaiah 66:2, Luke 18:13-14)
submit before Him (2 Chronicles 34:27, 1 Peter 5:6)
seek Him earnestly in prayer and fasting (2 Chronicles 7:14, Ezra 8:21)
obey His laws and commands (Jeremiah 44:10, Zephaniah 2:3)
work for justice and mercy (Micah 6:6-8)
value others above ourselves (Philippians 2:3-4)
fight against false humility (Colossians 2:18,23)
So now that we got a glimpse into Zach’s odd brain and we learned about what humility looks like in God’s eyes, it begs the question, why do we as Christians care so much about being humble? Why would we want to adhere to God’s view of humility instead of the world’s version? Seeking out and acting upon humility leads to personal and communal benefits from God:
escape from harm and revival (Psalm 18:27, Isaiah 57:15)
favor and blessing (Proverbs 3:34, Isaiah 66:2, James 4:6, 2 Chronicles 7:14)
honor and exaltation (Proverbs 15:33, Proverbs 18:12, Matthew 23:12, Luke 1:52)
guidance and wisdom (Psalm 25:9, Proverbs 11:2)
Beyond our own gain and personal growth, the ultimate reason why we seek out humility is to become more like Jesus and bring more people to Him. The amazing part is that as we walk in and grow in humility, we begin to realize that our personal benefits don’t really matter compared to the glory of making Heaven more crowded!
YA, as we begin this journey towards humility, there will be personal reasons and benefits found along the path, but, in the end, there are more important, eternal reasons to sit down and be humble (shout out Kendrick Lamar).