As I have researched for this blog post, I have become increasingly aware that I need this word in my life. Humble. This year should be interesting! About the middle of December, I started asking the Lord what my new word for the year might be. Last year was my first attempt at focusing on ONE word. I think that overall it was a successful venture, although there were more times that I didn't focus on listening than when I did. New year, new day, new chances..
Until today, I hadn't received a solid answer, but then I realized that in all of the things I have read, and in several conversations I have had over the last month and more specifically in the last few weeks... humility has been the central theme. SO, I think that my new word for 2016 is humble. My co-workers will tell you that this is probably not a quality that I have excelled in the last few years. In fact, I have regularly touted that "I am awesome". Which I am, but the point is.... humility lets the awesomeness speak for itself.
I told Steve about the word I feel I've been lead to. He thinks I'm humble (I guess I have him fooled), so he asked me what I think the definition of that word is. I don't think I know the definition, I'm not so sure that I would even recognize humble if I saw it. I can point out pride... but what is humility?
While I was thinking about that, this story came to mind. I don't know where it came from or if I had heard it before somewhere...
A hungry hunter prays and asks God to send him some game. The man goes out to find food and comes across a fish swimming slowly in a clear stream. He looks at the fish and says in his heart that he deserves something bigger than a fish, God wouldn't provide only a small fish. The hunter walks stealthily through the forest searching for bigger prey when he happens upon a bird. The bird doesn't seem to notice as the hunter raises his bow. As the man takes aim, he thinks in his heart that he can do better than a bird... he is worth much more. So the hungry hunter lowers his bow as the bird flies away. The man continues his search for large game to fill his belly. A rabbit foraging on the forest floor becomes very still and raises his ears, the man has the rabbit in his sight. But again, the man decides that he needs much more than a rabbit to satisfy his hunger. Much later in the day, the hungry hunter comes across a deer tracks. The man says to himself, yes this is the kind of animal that I deserve! He searches and searches for the deer that left its tracks on the forest floor, but can not find the animal. By this time it is getting dark, and disheartened the man makes his way back to his humble cabin. As the hungry man is walking back to his home, every step he takes makes him more and more angry at God. The man says to God, you say you are my Provider, I asked you for food, for game, and now I am going home with nothing, and I am still hungry. The forest was quiet for several minutes and then gently God answered the man. "I gave you what you asked for. I answered your prayer with a fish, a bird and a rabbit but in your pride you decided that you are better than my gift.. instead you kept searching for what you felt like you deserved instead of accepting what I put in your hand
So, if the story above illustrates Pride, what is true humility?
Vernon Grounds(1) says,
"It is the spontaneous recognition of the creature’s absolute dependence on his Creator ….”Andrew Murray(2) says,
“the place of entire dependence on God.” He adds, “Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God, and allows Him as God to do all…. It is simply the sense of entire nothingness, which comes when we see how truly God is all, and in which we make way for God to be all.”
Stuart Scott says(3),
So then, humility (or pride) is a matter of how we think before God. Often we can see the attitudes and behavior of pride in others. But the point is, even if we can hide our pride from others, we cannot hide it from God. This is a mindset that we have to develop before Him, where we constantly judge our dependence on ourselves and affirm our gratitude toward Him and dependence on Him. James 4:10, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”(4)"When someone is humble they are focused on God and others, not self. Even their focus on others is out of a desire to love and glorify God…. A humble person’s goal is to elevate God and encourage others. In short, they “no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Cor. 5:15).
If He can humble himself to become man, suffer and die for me, the least I can do is be humble myself and trust him in All things.
I'm ready 2016!!! This year is going to be interesting and full of change, I can feel it!
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- Vernon Grounds. Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, ed. by Merrill C. Tenney [Zondervan], 3:222)
- Murray, Andrew. Humility: The Beauty of Holiness [Christian Literature Crusade], p. 12
- Scott, Stuart. From Pride to Humility (rev. ed., excerpted from The Exemplary Husband [Focus Publications], p. 17
- Cole, Steven J. Bible.org