On humility
I was pondering upon the topic of humilty as i was reading this book titled "relationship: a mess worth making"
The author said something of a parricular shock to me, here's the quote:
"when we encounter Jesus in John 13, His circumstances are horrible. Jesus knew that the hour had come for Him to die on the cross for self-centered sinners. He knew that the wrath of a just and holy God would soon fall on Him. The just punishment for all His people's sins woukd crush him in just a few days. Yet, what does He do? He serves. He does for His disciples what they should be doing for Him. He takes a towel and a basin of water and begin to wash their feet. It would be very tempting for Jesus to say: "dont u guys know what is going to happen to me? Get a grip and comfort me!" Yet He says nothing about what is about to happen to Him; He jst serves without self-pity. He is utterly selfless at the moment it would be most tempting to be selfish"
Pg 122
You may wonder- what does that have to do with humility?
Every single bit of it!
I would like to share my own failings. Whenever i prayed to
God asking for humility- the reason would be- ME!
I would like humility from God for the sake of praises from other men! I mean look at books etc that is written on humility. All teaches us ways to be humble like Christ- sure they are all good and biblical- but deep inside i didnt realisee the irony of my "seemingly godly" desire to be humble. I wanted to be humble not because i wanted to be like Christ. I wanted to be humble for the sake of convenience.
Dont you think as a christian being humble is convenient?
People would see you as a mature person- and you'll get your respect without doing anything for it. You will get a lot of praises from other christians because you are more like Jesus than they are. You will feel that you are a christian because you're fulfilling God's commandment to be humble. Etc etc and much more dirty and ugly statements that i won't write here simply because - its convenient- and there are too many of it!
But i guess even without giving a prroper conclusion- you would have already realise that what i was looking for was not humility but more food to feed my ugly pride.
As i was reading that section on Jesus. I was struck by how selfless He is.
And somewhat the Spirit revealed to me someting obvvious about humlity- humility will never equal to popularity.
That is exactly why humility is praised as it is- and highly priced in the bible. Because it comes at a very great cost- our everything. Even the desire to look at ourselves and the desire to think about self.
As cs lewis puts it: humility is not thinking less about ourselves - it is thinking about ourselves less.
It is not when we are constantly occupied about ourselves and how we can be humble. It is thinking about Christ more and what He has done as our fuel to start the day. As our fuel to live!
It is not being occupied at what we have or can or cannot do. It is trusting that when we put Him first- He will enable us to do those things- even when it is excruciatingly painful physially, emotionally and logically.
Most of all- being humble does not depend on whAt others think of us- but who we are in God's eyes.
It's an upside down world when it comes to faith. But this time the right side up!
Nitesy2
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The author said something of a parricular shock to me, here's the quote:
"when we encounter Jesus in John 13, His circumstances are horrible. Jesus knew that the hour had come for Him to die on the cross for self-centered sinners. He knew that the wrath of a just and holy God would soon fall on Him. The just punishment for all His people's sins woukd crush him in just a few days. Yet, what does He do? He serves. He does for His disciples what they should be doing for Him. He takes a towel and a basin of water and begin to wash their feet. It would be very tempting for Jesus to say: "dont u guys know what is going to happen to me? Get a grip and comfort me!" Yet He says nothing about what is about to happen to Him; He jst serves without self-pity. He is utterly selfless at the moment it would be most tempting to be selfish"
Pg 122
You may wonder- what does that have to do with humility?
Every single bit of it!
I would like to share my own failings. Whenever i prayed to
God asking for humility- the reason would be- ME!
I would like humility from God for the sake of praises from other men! I mean look at books etc that is written on humility. All teaches us ways to be humble like Christ- sure they are all good and biblical- but deep inside i didnt realisee the irony of my "seemingly godly" desire to be humble. I wanted to be humble not because i wanted to be like Christ. I wanted to be humble for the sake of convenience.
Dont you think as a christian being humble is convenient?
People would see you as a mature person- and you'll get your respect without doing anything for it. You will get a lot of praises from other christians because you are more like Jesus than they are. You will feel that you are a christian because you're fulfilling God's commandment to be humble. Etc etc and much more dirty and ugly statements that i won't write here simply because - its convenient- and there are too many of it!
But i guess even without giving a prroper conclusion- you would have already realise that what i was looking for was not humility but more food to feed my ugly pride.
As i was reading that section on Jesus. I was struck by how selfless He is.
And somewhat the Spirit revealed to me someting obvvious about humlity- humility will never equal to popularity.
That is exactly why humility is praised as it is- and highly priced in the bible. Because it comes at a very great cost- our everything. Even the desire to look at ourselves and the desire to think about self.
As cs lewis puts it: humility is not thinking less about ourselves - it is thinking about ourselves less.
It is not when we are constantly occupied about ourselves and how we can be humble. It is thinking about Christ more and what He has done as our fuel to start the day. As our fuel to live!
It is not being occupied at what we have or can or cannot do. It is trusting that when we put Him first- He will enable us to do those things- even when it is excruciatingly painful physially, emotionally and logically.
Most of all- being humble does not depend on whAt others think of us- but who we are in God's eyes.
It's an upside down world when it comes to faith. But this time the right side up!
Nitesy2
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone