Rev Gav
Humility
Luke 1:51-53. What does it mean to be humble and is it a strength or a weakness?
Luke 1:51-53
51 His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
52 He has brought down princes from their thrones
and exalted the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
Reflect
Humility is having a low or modest view of your own importance. Godly humility is having a correct view of your own importance in the light of the presence of God. In our modern, western culture, humility seems to be a word missing from our descriptions of people. Is it that people just aren’t humble any more? Certainly, to be humble seems to go against the grain of our individualistic, ‘put myself first’, ‘me’ culture. Humility is seen as a sign of weakness and not strength. We tell our children to ‘believe in yourself’ which is a good thing, but often the unsaid suffix is, ‘at the expense of everyone and anything else that gets in your way!’
The teaching of Jesus, and something that seems to come from the character of God, is the counter-cultural idea that we should think of others as better than ourselves, and that it is God who lifts us up, not ourselves. How do we do this in practice? Well, we need to gain a sense of perspective. When the first astronauts saw the earth from space, they gained a new perspective on the earth against the backdrop of the enormity of space. In the same way, when we come into the presence of God, we see ourselves how God sees us, and see others as God sees them. We gain a right perspective on ourselves, and this in turn helps us have humility.
Mary was a humble teenage girl without status or power and she was blessed by God. She had humility — a true understanding of her own self-importance in the light of the presence of God, and according to Mary, God lifts up the humble.
Do
Today, pray that the Lord would help you have true humility. Ask that you might come into his presence and gain a right perspective on your life.
Pray
Holy God
Help me see myself
against the backdrop of who you are.
Take away my pride,
that I might give you room to lift me up,
in accordance with your will.
This day and for ever.
Amen.
Think
What can help us be humble before God?
What can hinder us being humble before God?
