Dave’s Monday Blast – February 2, 2024
As I age, I have become increasingly introspective. When I lay my head down upon my pillow at night I am aware that another precious day has come and gone and I question my stewardship of the day. Today, the average American male lives to the age of 73. Doing the math: 73 X 365 = 26,645 days. Being nothing but average, and based upon my current age, I have just about 3,000 days left. My father is still kicking at 96, so I might get a few more days than the average, but the point is, I have lived many more days than I have left, and I really want to make the days I have remaining count for eternity.
Recently, I have been enjoying the Biblical wisdom of Charles Stanley. As you know, he passed away almost one year ago, but his legacy lives on in his writings. A recently read article from Stanley entitled The Most Unappreciated Virtue helped me to understand how he was able to make the most of his days. He not only redeemed his allotted days for the Kingdom but his legacy lives on beyond those days.
Stanley comments: “As Christians, we desire to be characterized by virtues like honesty, integrity, moral excellence, loyalty, or compassion, but how many of us aspire to be humble? In a society that promotes power and ambition, humility is not highly valued. In fact, it is often thought of as being equivalent to weakness and cowardice.”
None of us of course would describe Jesus as weak, yet He says of Himself, “I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29). Humility is the opposite of pride and could be defined as lowliness of mind, based on a proper and godly perspective of oneself. The goal is to see ourselves as God does and accept whatever place He has for us.
We must also remember that a person’s position in life is not a measurement of how humble he or she is. An influential job or great wealth doesn’t automatically mean someone lacks humility any more than poverty or a lack of prominence guarantees a person is modest. A humble spirit is an internal quality of the soul that God produces in His children by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Stanley comments: “…humility is essential for salvation. No one comes to God and says, ‘Lord, this is your lucky day; I’m coming to be saved.’ That kind of proud attitude will never work. Everyone who’s truly been saved has come to God with a contrite spirit, confessing that he or she is a sinner in need of forgiveness. A humbled person has nothing to offer the Lord except repentance and faith in Christ.”
Next time we will examine the attitude of Christ, learning what true humility looks like and how we, too, can learn to walk humbly with God (Micah 6:6 – 8).
