Read: Micah 6:8, II Chronicles 7:14, John 13:1-17
This year has been…unusual. Therefore, in anticipation of celebrating Thanksgiving, I want to encourage you to consider what you are giving thanks for this year. Are we grateful despite the circumstances, or have we matured enough this year to give thanks to God for the challenges that have produced persistence, character, and hope in us?
If we are going to learn anything from this past year, we are going to have to approach our Thanksgiving with a spirit of humility. Otherwise, we might see ourselves as the victims of a traumatic year, rather than the victors of a triumphant year.
Humility is Required
“He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?” – Micah 6:8
The Lord requires humility from us. We are His creation and we were created to worship Him. We saw this in our recent study in the Book of Revelation. Every knee will bow before Him. This is our proper relationship to God, and anyone who truly knows God understands how we must approach Him.
We can see the importance of humility in the contrast between Moses and Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus. Moses was reluctant to do what God had called him to do, not because he doubted God, but because he is constantly second guessing himself. Yet, despite his fears and insecurities, he obeys God. Pharaoh, on the other hand, refuses to obey God, even after acknowledging His power through the plagues. God eventually accuses the Pharaoh through Moses, saying, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?” But the Pharaoh would not humble himself before God, instead, he would harden his heart and defy the LORD, even to the point of his own destruction. You may already know this, but Moses is considered the most humble man in the Bible, “Now the man Moses was very meek (humble), more than all people who were on the face of the earth.” Considering Moses wrote those words, it says a lot about him. Moses was humble because he was able to be the voice of God without allowing it to get to his head, unlike his brother and sister.
But you could say that Moses was humble by nature. It was easy for him to follow God. In contrast to that is the story of the Apostle Paul. In telling his testimony in Philippians 3, he describes himself as being anything but humble. He was proud and motivated by success and notoriety. After his encounter with Jesus, everything changed. Paul spent the bulk of his ministry in prison. Yet, at the end of his life, he acknowledged the joy of learning the humility of Christ.
God doesn’t simply require humility from us, but He will help us get there. In Deuteronomy 8, God explains why He gave the Israelites Manna in the wilderness: to humble them so that they would rely on God. If we do not humble ourselves before God, He will do the work of humbling us.
Humility is Rewarded
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” II Chronicles 7:14
Humility is not all sacrifice and servitude. There is a reward in humility. Jesus says that the meek (Humble) will inherit the earth. But telling someone there is a reward for humility is kind of like telling a toddler they can go to Disneyland if they can focus on a task. They will inevitably be so distracted with the reward that they wouldn’t be able to attend to their expectations.
Solomon received a Word from the Lord after the completion of the temple. God told him that if the people would be humble, God would bless them. Following this, we are shown just how difficult it was for the people to walk humbly with God. There are multiple examples in the subsequent passages in II Chronicles that show the blessings and the punishments of those who either heeded this command or disregarded it.
This is why surrender and submission is so important. We should count it all joy when we find ourselves in various trials of many kinds. These trials are meant to make us humble so that we can focus on the things that really matter while still being productive in our spiritual development. James tells us that we should have pride in our humble circumstances. It seems a bit incongruous, but when we learn to be thankful for the circumstances God is using to sanctify us, we can boast, not in our own works, but the work of Christ to transform us into His image.
The first will be last and the last will be first. It is a grace of God to keep us humble so that we will inherit our great reward in persevering. We should rejoice, have pride, and give thanks for the trials that we face, because without them, we would not gain our reward.
Humility is Represented in Christ
Jesus stresses the importance of humility several times when He addresses the Pharisees. “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). There is a warning here for us because we have a tendency to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, especially when it comes to receiving the favor of Christ. But we must remember that we are not deserving of God’s mercy and grace. Our sins deserve to be punished. Fortunately, God is the very definition of love and He demonstrated His love toward us by punishing His own Son in our place. This should humble us every time we think about it.
Jesus invites us to learn humility from Him. To take His yoke upon us, which is easy and light. Taking up our cross might seem like a burden at first, but it saves us from a life of slavery and rewards us with a righteousness and inheritance we could not earn. The only way we can stand before God, the just and righteous judge or the universe, is through the blood of Jesus. And the only way to be covered in His blood is by way of humility.
Jesus demonstrates humility to us in everything that He does, but I think there is a beautiful picture of His humility in the scene in the upper room. Right before Jesus performed the Last Supper, Jesus got down on his knees and washed the disciples’ feet. This was an act so low that it would have to be done by the lowest servabt. Yet, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet to show them the humility of preaching the gospel. Notice, as well, that Jesus washed Judas’s feet as well. On the night that He was betrayed, Jesus washed the feet of the one who would betray Him. We may not think people are worthy of our humility, but if Jesus could serve Judas, then we can serve those who have offended us.
Let’s circle back to II Chronicles 7:14. What does the Lord require of us? We must do what is just. Like Jesus, we must obey God in every aspect of our lives. This requires a great deal of humility, especially when it means that we have to serve those we don’t want to serve. Secondly, we must love mercy. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves and be reminded of the love of God every day. When we remember the gift of what God has given to us, it humbles us by His mercy and grace. Then, we must put ourselves in a position to humble ourselves before God. We must surrender and submit ourselves to God. Then, God will raise us up.
Adam Miller is the president and host of Songtime Radio and serves as the pastor of South Chatham Community Church. This article is a condensed version of one of his sermons.