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Being Humble

By John Lysaught


“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).

What does being humble mean? We use it all the time when we talk of Christ and our faith, but do we really know what it means. The dictionary says it is meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful. Now that we know this, we can have a better frame of context as we talk about being humble.

We need to be humble before Christ. If we let pride or arrogance in ourselves to take over, especially in our spiritual life, God always finds a way to give us a piece of humble pie. Right? Works that way for me. I used to be very proud, prideful, and arrogant before I knew Christ. Even when I was saved these attributes held on to me for quite some time.

Though since, Christ has taught me to be humble before Him and others. My biggest challenge at that time was being humble before others. I lacked wisdom but not knowledge and so I would think I was better than others in education, life experience, and general every day things. What Christ taught me was to be humble.

The times I was arrogant and such, Christ would turn it around on me and I would be humbled. After I became humble, after all those lessons, I live a more peaceful life. What God has taught me was to be humble towards others. By being humble to others, I found that I get along with just about anyone and can learn something new from each person I meet, whether it be knowledge of something or wisdom.

Once I learned to be humble with others, I learned to be humble toward Christ. You would think it would be the other way around, but for me, Christ showed me to be humble toward others before I learned to be humble toward Him.

What I learned was that when I exalted myself, I was not humble but arrogant in my ways. Yet when I humbled myself to others and Christ, I was blessed and could better express my love for Christ towards others through a meekness that showed I was willing to learn and set myself aside for others.

The sad part is that not all Christians do this and the secular world looks at us who practice this as weakness. We’ve all met Christians who don’t practice meekness. They are arrogant, prideful, and lack the humbleness required by Christ. The best place to observe this is at church of course. All you have to do is listen to people talk. Those that talk about themselves and all the great things they do for the church or the good they do for the community is not humble, but prideful. They pride themselves on actions they do and like to brag about it so others can see how great of Christians they are.

Then you have the other Christians that are humble. They don’t boast about their works for Christ, but are humble about it when it is brought up, like it is no big deal. These are truly humble people for they don’t talk about what they did for Christ but what Christ is using them for and how thankful they are for the opportunity Christ has given them to do His work. I admire these people, but they are few and far between.

To most secular world we are weak people. Those of us that practice humbleness are seen as weak and meek people. If you are seen that way, be happy about it for that is what we are suppose to be. Be humble towards others and be humble towards Christ. When we are humble toward others it shows our love and caring for people.

When we are humble before Christ, we are open to His guidance and His great love for us on our path towards salvation. When we are humble toward Christ, we have a better relationship with Him for He is greater than all and deserves humbleness before Him. We have a better prayer life, better understanding of His Word, and are more in tune to what He wants from us.

When we are not humble to Christ, we tend to rely on ourselves and give credit to ourselves for our greatness, leaving Christ in the background when He should be in the foreground of praise. Without humbleness, our relationship with Christ is not as full or fulfilling as it can be with Him. It’s like we are taking credit for something He did in or for us and not recognizing His greatness.

When I write or study the Bible, I pray for humbleness in these activities. If I try to write with arrogance, without His inspiration, they are horrible writings and end up in the recycling bin on my computer. If I try to study the Bible without being meek in knowledge and wisdom, I just don’t get the full picture or message. Yet when I am humble, I find I learn more from the Bible and I write better messages than relying on myself to do so.

“With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2).

“To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men” (Titus 3:2.)

When I meet people, I remind myself to be humble toward them. I remind myself that I’m not better than them. When I do this, I’m amazed at what I can glean from people. When I’ve met homeless people and act humble toward them, I learn a lot about them and learn lessons about life from them. Not only does it bless me but it blesses them because they feel they are equal to me, which they are in the eyes of Christ.

I find also that when I meet people and act humble toward them, they respond in a different way than the other guy or gal who was rude and arrogant. It’s like being humble spreads love and peace around you. By doing so, you are emulating Christ and your light of Him shines to others. Be humble to others and not only will you bless them with the light of Christ, but you will be blessed knowing that you showed love to another and may just get the opportunity to share Christ to someone.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pete 5: .

You know who doesn’t want you to be humble? You guessed it—Satan. Oh, how he doesn’t want you to be humble toward anyone and especially Christ. He wants to kill, steal, and destroy. He doesn’t want you to have a relationship with Christ or show love to others. He wants you to be proud. He wants pride to rule your life. He likes it when you are arrogant and show no meekness.

Why? Because this lack of humbleness will separate you from God. How can you be humble only on Sunday’s but be everything contrary the other six days of the week.

Remember, Satan wants your soul with him in hell and he’ll do anything to get you to give your soul to him. There are many ways he does this and one is to take away your humbleness. By taking away your humbleness towards Christ, he makes a barrier between you and your maker. He’s sneaky at this and will chip away at you so you have to be strong enough to recognize his ways and resist.

Pride is a strong thing to have and to avoid. Pride is easy to get and if not kept in check, will grow and grow until it has overpowered you. What will Satan do to make you prideful? He will use your faith against you. What you do for Christ, Satan will try his best to get you to think it was all you and not Christ. It may be little at first, but he will make it grow and grow until you are the one at church boasting about all the good YOU do and talk only about yourself and your good deeds. This is a no-no.

Arrogance is another tactic used by Satan to separate you from your Savior. You’ve seen them, those people who are chosen to hold special status in church that regular members aren’t a part of. They can be Sunday school teachers, council members, etc. I’ve seen these people and there is a sense of arrogance about them that makes them seem they are better than others because of a status they hold at church. When I was the council president, I was humbled by the opportunity and felt heavy responsibility for what I was responsible for. I didn’t boast and really, no one knew I was part of the council. I was humble and that is the way it is supposed to be.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2: .

Be humble my fellow servants of Christ. We found grace through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for us and because of this, He deserves, no it is commanded, that we be humble toward Him. Regardless of where you walk with Christ ,as a beginner or an old hand, remember to be humble toward Him. Humbleness takes practice and mindfull effort on our part to always practice humbleness towards our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He didn’t die on a cross for us to not be humble toward Him and His teachings or ways. But to be humble in actions and spirit to Him and others. If you are having a hard time being humble, or don’t know how to be humble, pick up that Bible of yours and read it. Christ was humble toward man and there are a plethora of examples in the gospels of His humbleness and His examples of being humble.

Recognize that Christ is our Lord. See that He is above us. Know that He loves you. Most of all though, be humble in spirit to Him when studying and praying to Him.

With all blessings.

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Zechariah 12:3,9:
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
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