Humble yourself under the mighty hand of your God so that I may exalt you in due time. 1 Peter 5:6
Humility. There's a characteristic we battle against on a daily basis.
Our world screams at us to stand up for our rights; to not let others push us around; to demand that our voice is heard.
And yet that was not the way of the Savior, was it? He was led silent, like a lamb to the slaughter. When He was on the path that led to His death, He remained silent. Can you imagine how it would've looked otherwise? If Jesus had fought and kicked and screamed? If He had demanded a lawyer, who would stand up for His rights? If He had struck back at one of His captors?
A huge part of the torture and crucifixion of Jesus was His humility that led Him to not fight when He not only had the right, but also when He had available to Him the power to do so.
So should we let other people run over us and just take take it?
No. What we should do is strive to live a life of humility. Not trying to elbow our way into the world for our 15 minutes of fame, but striving instead to be people of high character and great service to others.
God will take care of the rest. He promises.
What impresses you about this passage?
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I find that I love God all the more for this passage. I love that I can feel like I don't need to be exalted on this earth or by its people, but instead be exalted by the only One that matters--God himself. Why fight someone who doesn't understand? God asks me to humble myself so that I may be exalted. In our society, this is seen as a sign of weakness, but God shows us that this is the only way to live. In turn, He will bless us with grace. How can he poor grace on someone who feels they have no fault? It is in my humility that I allow grace to come in and change me.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that impresses me about this passage is the words that come at the end of verse 6: "that he will lift you up IN DUE TIME." My mother would take me to the bus stop before going to work and there was a Gospel song, and I'm paraphrasing a line from it: "He may not come when you want Him, but He's always right on time." God's timing is different from our timing and if I can just grasp at that fact, Wow! I received a Holy Spirit led tongue lashing, done in love of course, by a good friend of mine because I want attention and acceptance from others and the only thing that has been getting me is trouble. If I can and I will strive to do this on a daily basis, be confident but humble, my stress level and my reality TV like drama level will be 86ed. It's a cool feeling to be humbled before the Lord. Painful, but cool. I want to be changed for His glory.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of nights long ago spent gazing at the heavens, back when there wasn't so much light pollution....and as much as I was impressed by the views of the planets, I only later realized that those planets in all their glory were, are and always will be totally cold and dark without the sun.
ReplyDeleteTotally.
The rings of Saturn, the giant spot on Jupiter, the red of Mars, the 'man' in the moon: all dark without the sun's light to reflect. All of the glory we assign to the planets is mere reflection of the sun. In fact, without the sun we wouldn't be able to see them at all.
Much like our glory, the light we share around us, is only reflection of the real light, the real glory of God. Without it we are cold and dark. Not much to see, really.
I just ask God to polish me up a bit so I can reflect His light better and brighter.... Buff away my pride and prejudice that dulls God's reflection. Cut thru the corrosion and decay that dims the reflection that I cast.
ouch, that buffing wheel is hot!
Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular
ReplyDeletepost! It's the little changes that produce the largest changes.
Thanks for sharing!
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