Dave’s Monday Blast – February 26, 2024

I wanted to wrap up a conversation we have been having over the last three weeks on the virtue of humility. From a previously published teaching, the late Pastor Charles Stanley taught that Jesus exemplified 4 attitudes of humility, and if adopted, would better allow us to walk humbly before our God (Micah 6:6 – 8). We have unpacked the first three attitudes here-to-fore.

For this week and to conclude:

4. Jesus “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death…” (Philippians 2:8). Christ always carried out the Father’s will, and His ultimate act of obedience required dying for the sins of the world (1 Peter 3:18). No one was going to take His life; He was going to lay it down on His own initiative, in compliance with the Father’s command (John 10:17 – 18). Jesus’ death on the cross was a supreme humiliation. Crucifixion was a slow, agonizing way to die and was reserved for the most despicable criminals. Jesus hung there disrobed between two lawbreakers and was mocked and reviled by a crowd as He bore the consequences of sin on behalf of humankind. (A careful reading of the gospel accounts record between 8 and 10 actual attempts or serious plots to kill Jesus – of course they all failed because His sacrifice had to be voluntary).

The One who reveals our sin to us has the power to transform us.

Humility is what God desires for us. To this point Pastor Stanley comments: “The Lord has shown us the attitude we need to have if we’re to follow Him faithfully. Too often, we focus on our wants to protection, provision, guidance, love, assurance, and blessings which are all good, but He wants to develop Christlike humility in us. This means we have to do an honest self-evaluation and ask Him to show us where we are prideful. We’ll probably discover things about ourselves that we don’t like, but the One who reveals them to us has the power to transform us. As we look at the example Christ set for us, we should consider how we measure up to His attitude of humility.” Stanley suggests we need to ask ourselves these types of questions:

• Do my goals in life focus on self-advancement?
• Do I hold tightly to my own rights, privileges, desires, or ways?
• Am I willing to empty myself of these rights and preferences and lay them down in obedience to God?
• How often do I lower myself to do things that seem beneath me?
• Do I consider what I can do to serve someone else, or am I simply looking out for myself?

Greatness begins with humility. 

No one has ever humbled himself more than Jesus, and for this reason “God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow…” (Philippians 2:9 – 10). Self-promotion may seem like the path to importance, but it leads only to ultimate humbling by God. Take a moment to read Matthew 20:26; 1 Peter 5:6; Matthew 25:23.