Humble.

One famous athlete from the last century quipped, “It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am” (Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/humble-quotes). If we rise to the elevation of “great,” what is the reason for this greatness?

Our word for this week is “humble.” God calls for us to humble ourselves under His mighty hand (1 Peter 5:6). So what does that mean? And how do you decipher practical approaches to this idea of humility?

I like to think of humility as related to the game, Limbo. The game was introduced to me on the roller skating rink as a grade school boy during a class outing. Roller skating was already an awkward activity so adding the Limbo stick to the contest made it even more of a challenge. The goal for Limbo is “how low can you go?” Each pass under the stick and the stick is lowered one notch. The large collection of classmates quickly dwindled until there was only one person left. I never won and I was usually out in one of the first rounds. But I still went for it.

It takes a lot to be good at Limbo. It takes hard work to be good at humility. Humility means saying no to self-aggrandizement. It means denying our ascending ego. It also necessitates a recognition that anything good or great in me is actually from God. It means going low; just like Limbo. How low can you go low as a Christian?

There is false humility where you fein being humble but it becomes a form of pride: “look at how humble I am.” Clearly we don’t want deceptive humility. The best first step toward humility is to recognize that everything good in us comes from God.

God gives us a couple of incentives in 1 Peter 5 that help us to be humble. One is the law-based, heavy handed approach: do it or else. Humble yourself or God will do it for you: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). But then He adds this incentive. When you truly humble yourself, God has a nice little surprise attached: He is going to lift you up. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:6).

And, the gospel of all of this is, “He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). He is invested in you. His thoughts are about you. I like to use the passage from Zephaniah 3:17 which talks about God’s interest in you: He cares so much that He even sings about you. That’s fascinating! Do you know anyone who sings about you? Your mom maybe. A spouse, a childhood friend? Probably no one in the world has dedicated a song appropriated to you. But God in Heaven has. He sings about you. Blessings on your week!

“The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).