Humility

Qualifications - Blog.4

In my last blog I discussed the Gifts that God has bestowed upon us at Salvation. These Gifts have been given to us that we might use them for His glory rather than our own. They are tools for us to use in building God’s work, not toys for our pleasure or the entertainment of others. To reinforce this point the Apostle Paul prefaces his teaching on the Gifts, in Both Romans 12 and Ephesians 4, with teaching on humility. I quoted the relevant verse in Romans 12 at the conclusion of my last blog and here is the verse in Ephesians.

‘I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;’ Ephesians 4 v 1-2

God puts a great emphasis in His Word on the importance of humility. We ought always to remember that we are only sinners saved by His Grace.

‘God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.’ James 4 v6

‘Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:’ 1 Peter 5 v6

A haughty and proud spirit can have a serious effect on our usefulness for God. If we are self reliant and self confident in our own abilities we will fail miserably in God’s service and therefore we should always remember, that in God’s work the success or failure does not depend on us but rather on God, as Paul said in 1st Corinthians 3 v6 ‘I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.’ That’s the right attitude. To think that we can achieve anything without the aid of God is to delude ourselves, as the Psalmist said ‘Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it:’ Psalm 127 v1

In my blog on ‘Physical Maturity’ a few of weeks ago I was discussing the different ages at which people embarked upon a ministry for God. I mentioned that the ministry of Moses did not really get started until he was 80 years of age. I think in part this was due to his lack of humility at 40 years of age. You will recall from the book of Exodus how Moses at the age of 40 decided to try and deliver the Children of Israel by his own hand, killing an Egyptian task master and burying him in the sand. Stephen in the book of Acts, commenting upon this story, relates how Moses ‘supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.’ Acts 7 v25 Moses’ attempt failed miserably and he had to run away and hide.

Forty years later God decided that Moses’ lesson in humility was complete, and He appeared unto Moses at the Burning Bush, to commission him for the task of delivering Israel from bondage. We can see from Moses’ attitude in Exodus chapter 3 that he now had a right view of himself, saying to God ‘Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?’ Exodus 3 v8

Thankfully Moses’ right view of himself did not stop him from carrying out the task in hand, God promised that He would be with him every step of the way and He surely was. We too have the promise of God’s help as we seek to work for Him, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’ Philippians 4 v13

One thing that will foster this attitude within us is an ever-closer relationship with God, as the closer that we get to God, the more sinful and weak we realise that we are. We realise that we can do nothing apart from His enablement. The prophet Isaiah had this experience, in chapter 6 of his prophecy we learn of how God revealed himself to Isaiah in a very powerful way. As Isaiah viewed God that day and then had a look at himself he concluded ‘Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.’ Isaiah 6 v5 No pride here!

The Psalmist David, who also knew a close walk with his God, understood the need for humility. In his great Psalm of confession (Psalm 51) David acknowledged that ‘the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.' V17

If we learn these lessons of humility that Moses, David and Isaiah learned in their day, then we are well on our way to being qualified for usefulness for God.