True Humility

Verse of the Week:

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 1 Peter 5:5b

True Humility

A while back I had had a wonderful day with my husband and son. We had just enjoyed a fun time being outdoors, and watching my two boys together made my heart swell with love. After being outdoors for most of the day, it was nice to go inside, relax on the recliner, catch up on emails, and check my facebook. As I quickly scrolled down on the newsfeed of facebook, my eye caught a post. It said something along the lines of this: "Had a wonderful evening with my friends tonight." Then the post tagged all the people that were there... many of them my friends. Immediately my day went from wonderful to bad.  Why wasn't I invited? Did they not like me?  Hurt filled me. Maybe I was considered weird or maybe my hearing loss turned them off. I began to go through things I had done in the past wondering if I had hurt someone's feelings or had done something to make them dislike me. For two days I wallowed in self pity over it. My self esteem hit an all time low. I thought God was humbling me so I began to put myself down. I cried out to God to take away the hurt, but it continued to plauge me. Can anyone relate?

One morning during my quiet study time I started doing some deep soul searching.  I believed God was teaching me a lesson on humbleness but my perspective of what being humble truly was was completely distorted. Yes, there was a lesson for me in humbleness, but it wasn't about putting myself down and having a pity party. I read a definition in the dictionary about humbleness, and it said, "having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc."  People tend to take the words insignificance and inferiority and think that they are supposed to put themselves down, but insignificance doesn't mean putting ourselves down. Here is my definition of humbleness: changing our focus to God and giving Him the glory.  When we shift our focus to giving God the glory, we strip ourselves of our glory and make ourselves insignificant. Our focus is not about ourselves but about God and what we can do for Him, which is love Him and others.

My eyes began to open up to the pride and selfishness I was showing to that facebook post. It was all about me, myself and I. Why wasn't I invited? Why was I not part of the group? I deserved to go to the gathering. Then I realized something God was asking me, "Why was going to the party so important?" In light of Jesus, it was so insignificant. In light of me, it was so important. People, including myself, like to climb the ranks of social status and make themselves look good. How many likes or comments did I get on facebook? How many friends do I have? Do people like me? Do I dress and have the home decor that would meet the approval of others? Do I donate money for causes to make myself look good? Am I climbing the ranks of social status in my job? Am I talented enough in a sport to WOW people when they watch me play? Our motives tend to be prideful and selfish.

Here is what I am learning:

Pride- focusing on ourselves
Humility- focusing on God

It is all about HIM, folks, not about me.  When I began to understand true humbleness, the verse 1 Peter 5:5b began to have deeper meaning: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. I began to understand why God opposes the proud, it was all about THEM! He needs followers of Christ who are focused on giving Jesus the glory not themselves.  He gives grace to the humble and uses them because He knows that the humble will give Him the glory.

My perspective on that facebook post began to change. In light of God, it didn't matter one bit if I was invited or not. What mattered to God is that I make myself available to loving my friends and others.  Being available if they need me; talking with them about how they are doing; asking questions about their lives; and making them feel important...invitation or not. Philipians 2:3 says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others. Wow! So I need to treat others as if they are more important! That is true humility.

Dear Jesus, thank you for showing me what true humility is. Help me to love You and others with the same kind of unselfish love that Jesus displayed for us. To You be all the glory.

It is all about Him, not me.