Humbleness

September 9, 2018

" Therefor whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:4)  I had an individual in my class years ago who said he had never heard a good definition of humility. The more I thought about it I had to agree. Here when Jesus uses the word He leaves it to our knowledge to know how a child is humble. We can make some assumptions. A child is completely dependent on others for his life. He is a reflection of those he is around. A child loves without condition and a child will defend those he loves without exception. If we make these assumptions we can see the definition of  humility come into focus. We should possess these traits and many others if we are in a true relationship with Jesus !

In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy 8:2 we see, " And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not."  You mean God did not know what was in their hearts ???   Of course not ... God wanted the Jews to know what was in their hearts !  Here again as we try to put together the state of being humble, we see TOTAL reliance on God while they were in the desert. It took 40 years for God to be convinced of their humility. How much longer for us ?  Perhaps if we surrender to the Holy Spirit (Which was not available to them) that is a seed that He plants in our spirit and grows as we nurture it !

" When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom "( Proverbs 11:2)   Here we see that the opposite of humility is pride. Does that mean it is wrong to take  "pride " in a job well done ?  God forbid ! As Christians we do our work as if for God. The pride here is not the same as is talked about here in Proverbs. Here, the writer is saying that pride is an over riding part of a person who believes in his own self righteousness and therefor does not compare himself to God ... but only unto himself !  A total NON - reliance on God !  The opposite of humility.