Strength In Being Humble
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. James 4:7-10
There have been no more hurtful words to hear in my world than these. I am disappointed in you. Most of my life, I have been a people pleaser to the point that I used to overlook my own wants and needs. It’s ok to put those things aside for others, but sometimes it can be unhealthy. Remember the Greatest Commandment does not state to love others more than yourself. It means to love them as you love yourself. But to fail to give others what they need and to be the person responsible for it was always painful to me. If I got a bad grade, I felt worse that I disappointed my mom than I was about my grade itself. As I grew in my relationship with God, my failures went from ‘it’s not that bad’ to ‘man, this hurts.’ As such, I never wanted to ignore those things that displease God and more importantly, treat them as ‘habitual faults.’ You know. The stuff that you do that you say, “My bad” repeatedly without changing anything. That’s when you get into trouble, and this is where humility needs to begin.
Humility is the reminder that God is both relevant to and Lord over your life. Reading today’s verses, being humble sounds like being weak or meek. That is what it seems like to those who are unapologetic in their actions, and this is going to sound a little harsh. It means they lack a degree of emotional intelligence. Why is that? Humility is instead a show of strength, and it requires a lot of emotional and spiritual discernment. We all sin for we all fall short of God’s glory. What is complicated is how do we respond to this? If we have no spiritual awareness, we could literally continue to sin without either guilt or worse yet remorse. However, if we become one with Jesus Christ, we learn of those things that are harmful to that relationship and in many cases each other. That is where our true transformation to children of God happens, and there is nothing easy about it. It challenges our thinking in ways we had not thought of, and there will be that measure of growing disappointment. It does not mean we are not forgiven through God’s grace. However, it means we understand the gravity of our actions, and thus, we have as the verses point out tears, sorrow and deep grief, sadness, and gloom. That is emotionally hard but necessary. Being humble is acknowledging that we are flawed and will at times fall. But if we look up to Jesus, He can help us be whole again and lift us up in honor.
We are saved by God’s grace. This is nothing to be treated lightly. It is to be cherished and appreciated. Humility is about giving our relationship with God its utmost respect. Not looking to dismiss it. So, let’s make sure that we are not missing this point. How can you show more humility to God? What habits do you have that deserve more spiritual scrutiny? My prayer is that we show our true strength in being humble to God. Amen.