Humility Defined

Dear friend,                                                         

I love the inspiring yet challenging definition Author/Speaker John Dickson wrote in his book called "Humilitas." He said, "Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself." Shazam! I find that astonishingly powerful and extremely hard to apply. Do you ever wonder why humility is so hard to live out? It is because humility is the opposite of what our culture worships - self. True humility is a daily dying to self while the world is daily telling you to exalt yourself. At every age and at every phase of your life, your battle to increase in humility will be challenged...indeed it will be a war (I Peter 2:11)! Our nature yearns for status and recognition. I don't naturally deploy my resources to help others. I often contemplate, "What's in it for me?" before I serve others. This is truly a battle for me. But Jesus Christ said the greatest are those who serve others. Peter said in I Peter 5:6, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time." God opposes proud people

but gives grace to the humble. 

 

As you live your life today, let's fight the tendency to exalt ourselves and make much of Christ. Tell Christ where you have failed him and experience His cleansing. Pride has destroyed millions. In his 2009 book, How the Mighty Fall, Author Jim Collins poignantly penned, "...when successful companies become arrogant, it often spells their downfall." Friends, the landscape of history is littered with casualties that have drank the poisoned perfume of pride - don't be one of them. Today, make the "...noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself." If you do, it is an indication God's grace is already working in you and through you!

 

From my heart,

 

Rick Hoppe
Teaching Pastor
Faith Bible Church
"To see unbelieving people become committed followers of Jesus Christ."