Humility is the Glory of God's Creation
Jeff Colon helps us see the relationship between humility and fellowship with God in this week’s interview. He shows us how pride keeps us from living lives which glorify God, which means that humility is the only entrance back into God’s original plan for humanity.
Jeff: Absolutely and without that there is no faith because faith is understanding that everything I have comes from God.
Mike: For someone listening to this who’s getting the sense that humility is important, and wants to make a commitment that tomorrow they will just start being humble, why couldn’t they just do that?
Jeff: Becoming humble isn’t something that we can produce in ourselves. It is something that God must help us with and open our eyes to. We also need to come to the realization that truly we are nothing and sometimes that's hard for us to see. When you come into the reality that you are nothing and you are helpless outside of Christ, you are on your way to humility, because that's where it begins.
Mike: Sometimes I do the most ridiculous thing in prayer. I get before the Lord and start trying to convince Him of the good things I've done or how good I really am and then God gets my attention and says, “No, you're nothing.”
Jeff: He will show you that truth and it's not in a demeaning way. In response we just need to yield ourselves to God and say, “Lord, you're right, I'm wrong, and this is what I am, but I surrender this vessel to you. Lord. I offer my life so that you can fill it. Give me strength to do the things that I'm unable to do.” Jesus said in John chapter 15, “Without me, you can do nothing.” Yet, when we yield to Him and give our lives to Him, He brings forth the fruit that He desires to produce in our lives.
Mike: We can have the desire to see righteousness and holiness exemplified in our lives, but I think sometimes the mistake we make is that we have the idea that doing all the right things is the greatest evidence of holiness in our life. It really isn't, is it?
Jeff: No, if our goal is to do the right thing without humility it will only produce a pharisaical attitude in us and that would not be a good thing.
Mike: If I go out tomorrow and try to be humble, I'm probably going to stumble and fall. It's probably a good thing that I do because again, it brings me to the realization that this is something God must produce in me. But there are some things that can put us on the right path for learning what it means to walk in humility. What are some of those things?
Jeff: Well, the first thing is that you must want it. As I look at Jesus, it makes me want humility, because I see how wonderfully He lived His life and what a blessing He was. How He displayed the Father's goodness and His love because He walked in humility. I want that in my life because I want people to see Jesus. We must first want it and then it requires faith, because it's not something we can produce in ourselves. We must believe God because He has promised to help us and give us the things we need and then pray and simply ask for Him to do it in us.
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There are so many times in Scripture Jesus invites us to come, ask, and believe Him and then obviously to the best of our ability do the words of Jesus. As we do that, I believe the Holy Spirit and the grace of God will bring it about in us, but it will not happen overnight. We see Jesus with the disciples, He was with them for three years and He taught them about humility all the time, but they were very slow to learn. Learning to be humble is a process, but if we yield ourselves to the Lord and trust Him to help us, He will bring humility about in our lives.
Mike: He really will, and I want to end on this next thought. As we're pursuing a greater sight of Jesus, a greater willingness to allow him to have His way in our hearts, and striving to learn what it means to walk in the humility of Jesus, we also must be willing to acknowledge when we're not.
Jeff: Amen and what helps me the most is considering and looking at Jesus in the Word and how He dealt with people. The more I look at Him, the more I realize I'm not like Him. It really shines the light on my heart and then I can acknowledge “Lord, I'm not like you in this way, but I repent, and I want to be.” As I fix my eyes on Him, and just how wonderful He is, it just furthers my desire to want to get the pride and things that are not like Him out of me; so that he could more fully live His life in me and through me.
