Humility please

James 4:10 "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up"

What is humility? I want to focus on the humility that deals with our relationship to God and His with us. The kind of humility that gives us the right understanding of who we are before God. Humility is an essential way in which a Christian demonstrates the right relationship with God.

Mark 1:7 "And he preached, saying, There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose."
John the baptist is the one who is talking here in this verse, and look at the humility he showed to Jesus, The Son of God. John had the right attitude of humility, telling the crowd around him that the One coming, he is not even worthy to untie His sandal. That's humility folks,wow. He knew who he was and where he stood in relation to the Saviour.

Romans 12:3 "For I say , through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think somberly, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith."
We are always thinking of ourselves these days and thinking way to much of ourselves. We need to think of ourselves somberly, which is the exercise of sound judgement, which will lead us to recognize that in ourselves we are truly nothing, and should yield the fruit of humility. Scripture is full of verses that deal with and command humility.

Titus 3:1-2 "Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one,to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men."

1 Peter 5:5 "Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble"."

James 3:13 "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom."

I like that last verse there, (James 3:13) for Christ showed the ultimate act of humility by taking on a fleshly body to walk with us, as a great example of how to live a life pleasing to the Father, and by going to the cross to gain for us something we could have never in any way done for ourselves. Jesus came to be like us so that in the end we could be like Him, glorified and sanctified in the eyes of God. That popular line people use :"what would Jesus do?". I always try to run that through my head when facing difficult decisions or when I fear my thoughts or actions may be border lining sin. Jesus led the perfect life, and if we have constant exposure to the Word and learn His life and teachings, we are able to know more clearly what Jesus would do in our circumstances.

In society we see all too often people looking out for themselves or "number one" they say. What would Jesus do? Well He came to save the world that was dead in its sins, sounds like He had our best interests at the head of the line rather than His own. Does God need me to complete His will? No! Does God need me to answer peoples "tough questions" on religion? No! Does God need me to get things done for Him? No! He needs none of us! But He loves us and therefore uses us and pours out His abundant Grace. We need to in return listen to Him, His word ,and teachings, look to the cross and remember the love He displayed for us, love Him first with all that we are, love our fellow man second, and get rid of this mindset we have of thinking so highly of ourselves.

I pray for all who are reading this that you shed any coat of pride you may have on and cloth your self in humility as the Peter 5:5 says. Let us look out for our fellow man and his needs more and more each day, random acts of kindness are contagious so let us start that ripple effect for mankind immediately. I pray you see the Father more clearly through scripture,His children, and prayer each and every day. With love and good tidings always
C.