How do we eliminate the self centered, self glorifying, selfishness, selfish ambition , self satisfaction, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, selfish motives and replace it with self control that humbles ourselves before the throne of God? We need only look to God and His Word for the answers. Before saying anything further, know that being completely humble all the time will be elusive. But thanks be to God, we have a humble servant in Christ Jesus who intercedes for us on our behalf.  

Being Humble is one of the defining marks of a true Christian and as such here are 3 things we need.

We need to Recognize fully, Respond favorably & Remember fondly the things that help us create a humble spirit!

H.U.M.B.L.E.

RECOGNISE, RESPOND, REMEMBER

H HOLINESS - "But just as He Who called you is Holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ´Be holy, because I am Holy.´" - 1 Peter 1:15-16

We are told to be Holy!!!

Hebrews 12:14

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. God wants to see His character reproduced in us 2nd cor 7:1 perfecting holiness out of reverence for God and his commands, statues

- Holiness is one of the characteristics that defines our being humble. And isn’t it great that Jesus is our holiness. That through him we can attain it Romans 11:16 If the root is holy, so are the branches. Jesus said I am the vine, you are the branches. John 15:5 Through him we attain it.

We receive it. I am the branch you are the vines. Remain in me and I will remain in you. If we renew our mind after the mind of Christ, then holiness will be the result of it. If we try to become holy in the human effort it will not happen.

Be careful though to make sure it does not go from holy to holier then thou! When that happens and it does., we will find ourselves starting to stumble. A greater then you attitude is a prideful one.

To be holy is to put to death "self," to humbly seek to submit all areas of one´s life to the Lord - mind, body, and spirit. To pursue holiness is to seek to be made like Christ in every way, knowing that in every way He sought to be made like the Father.

To be holy is to love the Lord our God with heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.’

The song says “I choose to be holy, set apart for you my master” This is biblically accurate. Our holiness is to be fully set apart for God.

To be holy is to be set apart for God and God´s purposes. To be holy is to belong to God and to no longer belong to the world.

Josiah - 34:21 acknowledges God, takes responsibility vs. 27 why did God decide to lift up Josiah? “Because you were RESPONSIVE and Humbled Yourself before God."

Josiahs response = Follow the Lord, Keep His Word, Obey Him, Pledge Yourself to Him - that is being set apart for the holiness of God.

To be humble is to be Holy! 

WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE, RESPOND FAVORABLY, and REMEMBER

U UNDERSTANDS - God understands and knows our every motive, our every thought, our every desire. He searches us out to strengthen us when our hearts are fully committed to Him. 1 chron 28-9 Proverbs 3-5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Likewise, we must understand as well.

Daniel 10:12 Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.

Psalm 119:104

I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

James 3:13

[ Two Kinds of Wisdom ] Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

Understanding what God wants from us is a necessary part of what it means to be humble for without understanding of God, we stumble.

To be Humble is to Understand! 

WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE, RESPOND FAVORABLY, and REMEMBER

M MERCY - He forgives us - We need to forgive others

Luke 18:9-14 9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about[a] himself: ´God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.´

13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ´God, have mercy on me, a sinner.´

14"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

A cry for mercy is a humble character trait before God. It fully acknowledges our weakness and reliance on Him.

That is when he lifts us up. James tell us that we are to be merciful to those who doubt. God tells us time and again to exercise mercy. And mercy is one of the defining attributes of heavenly wisdom (james 3:17)

Being merciful is to be forgiving, just as in Christ, God forgave us. to be Humble is to be merciful!

WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE, RESPOND FAVORABLY, and REMEMBER

B BLESSINGS - Psalm 149:4 For the Lords takes delight in His people, He Crowns the humble with Salvation!!!!!

That is the greatest blessing bestowed on us today or any day! Our salvation is dependant upon being humble before the Lord. It is recognizing that we can do nothing without Him. We are nothing without Him. We are low - He is high. The experience of salvation comes through humbling ourselves before God and acknowledging that we need Him

The Humble will rejoice in the Lord!!!! Isaiah 29:19 Of course we will! He has given us eternal life in His Son!

Proverbs 3:13

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding,

Matthew 5:7

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

To humble ourselves before the Lord is to gain blessings! Other benefits and blessings of humbling ourselves before the Lord are honor, wisdom, unity, and eternal life.

You know, the Bible says to remember the day of your Salvation. Why? It was when you were at your most humble before the Lord.

To be Humble is to receive Blessings!

 WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE, RESPOND FAVORABLY, and REMEMBER

L LOVE - Walk in love - putting others first.

Phil 2:1-11

1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

We are commanded to love as the Lord loves us. We need to carry that out in our everyday lives. 1Cor 13:4 Love does not boast, it is not proud. Love is HUMBLE

Practice being humble. What can we do to live a life of humility with the idea that we can reflect the love of Christ to those around us?

1. Give preference to other people. A) let someone else go first. Imagine you are at the grocery story the day after thanksgiving - the busiest day of the year. You are in a hurry because there are other things you need to get done. You are in a long agonizingly slow line of people and the lady behind you is hitting your cart. All of the sudden you hear this announcement from above. “Register 7 is now open”. What do you do? Do you take the Rambo approach and mow over little children and grandmothers. Do you throw people off and say lane 7 is over this way! What do you do. Romans 12:10 says to honor one another above yourselves. Give them the lane. Give preference.

B) . Help others get ahead - especially in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

C) a third way to give preference to others is to do more listening then talking James 1:19 says to be quick to listen, slow to speak.

D) Be willing to learn from others.

E) Be willing to admit when you are wrong. As humans we make mistakes. We need to admit that to one another. We have a tendancy to say “Yes I was wrong, but…” We sugar coat our mistakes and push the blame into the laps of somebody else when what we need is plain total brutal humble honesty. “I did it, it was my fault. I am sorry”.

Hear is a story I heard that demonstrates that we do not always need to sugar coat things but to be little more up front. Story about a woman who went on a business trip and called her husband and asked how things were.

The Husband responds with, "Oh hi honey, the kids are doing great but the cat died."

The wifes says, “Oh wow that is just terrible news but what is more disturbing is how you just presented that. You did not give me a chance to be ready or prepared. You just blurted it out. I could not ease into it. You did not build me up for the news.

Maybe next time you could try a different approach. Like on day one you could say the cat was up on the roof. On day 2 you could say that the cat fell off the roof and was not doing well. And then on day 3 you could say the cat died. You see then I would be ready for that.

Husband says, “All right honey. I am sorry.

I will try to do better then that next time.”

The wife repsonds "Well ok, lets not worry about it. I know the kids are fine and I know my mom is expected to come over for a visit. How is she doing?

The Husband says, “Well, she is up on the roof”. Sometimes sugar coating things doesn’t help.

We need to humbly admit that we make mistakes. And do things wrong. We need to be honest with God and others instead of sugar coating an concealing the truth.

Loving Humility allows us to focus look to others interests.

To be Humble is to Love!

WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE, RESPOND FAVORABLY, and REMEMBER

E EXAMPLE Philippians 2:5-9:

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

6Who, being in very nature[a] God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

7but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature[b] of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

8And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

We need to be obedient to God, just as Christ was. If we walk in pride, we can not imitate Christ.

Daniel 4:37 among the last words spoken by Nebuchenezur tells us this “those who walk in pride, God is able to humble. Take a look at this guy! And you will see what happened. Pride - that would be our way. Humble - that would be Gods way. Lets clarify this.

Not my way, but gods way

Not my thoughts, but Gods thoughts In me. (Bible says to take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ)

Not my words but His words

Not my thing, but his thing

Not my actions but His actions shining through me

Not my will, but his will.

Not my wisdom, but His wisdom

Not me first ,but others first

See the distinction!? ME HIM!

Self Others

The example that our Lord Jesus showed us is the one we are to follow. To be Humble is to follow the Example of Christ!

We are to recognize this, respond to it favorably and remember it!

1Peter 5:6 says “Humble yourself under Gods mighty hand and he will lift you up. But I have been doing that! WHEN will he lift me up???. The rest of the verse says in due time!!!!

It took 40 years in the desert forGods children to humble themselves that they would realize that man does not live on bread alone but on every word of God. Put God and others first in your life.

Do not let the pride of the heart deceive you. (Obadiah 3)

Do not become stiff necked and hardhearted as Zedikiah did by not humbling himself before the Lord (2nd Chronicles).

Do not be like Amon. 2nd Chronicles 33:23 He did not humble himself and as a result he increased in his guilt.

Manasseh on the other hand HUMBLED HIMSELF GREATLY Before the Lord (33:12). He was restored by God.

Most prophets were of humble origins: peasants, shepherds, farmers - even jesus had a humble beginning in a lowly manger.

God Guides the Humble and teaches us His ways(Psalm 25:9) . He sustains the Humble (Psalm 147:6) . He Blesses the Humble. The one He esteems is he who is humble (Isaiah 66:2)

The devil wants us to stumble. That is part of his job. We are told to be aware of the devils schemes and not allow him to take a foothold. We are told to resist him. To flee from evil.

And among the things the devil hates the most is when we come before God with a humble heart because it leads to our salvation, blessings and wisdom in and through Jesus Christ who gave himself up for us at Calvary that we may have life.

How is your heart today. What part of being humble do you struggle with? Can you say “Lord, help me to have a humble heart before you. I recognize my sinful nature. Forgive me. Help me to understand your ways and grow in them. Help me to put others first.

Just like Josiah responded and humbled himself, I want to follow you, obey you and keep your word. I recognize that without you I am nothing.

Respond and Pledge yourself to God and let the blessings flow!

We had 6 letters to touch on being H.U.M.B.L.E.

Now there are 6 words.

More of Him, Less of me!!!!!

Be Blessed my friends!

In His Service,

Jody Midgley