Hope For Today "Humility"

Jesus is so challenging for us in how He lives and then calls us to follow in always seeking the good of others. We’ll never get there on our own but God is more than willing to walk with us and show us the way.

News events in these days bring into sharp focus that anger and hatred that so many seem to be filled with as opinions and convictions about numerous issues come into focus. Differences of opinion and conviction come into view. But we must remember this:  hateful angry sarcastic speech and acts of violence are not God’s way.

God wants us to learn today that in the middle of challenges, if we make a choice to trust a good God, and hold onto hope in His promises, we will endure and we will come out of the experience as better people.

Have the same attitude as Jesus – one that allows us to live below where we think we should be seen and honoured and not only willing to do that but to be told we are not doing it right.  While the humility of Jesus is something that has always astounded me, it challenges me profoundly when I consider that this is what you and I, as followers of Jesus, are called to as well.

We often attach the label, “higher education” to those degrees people seek who go to college and university after high school graduation. But, when you think about it. every student around the world is working towards a higher education. Throughout life God calls us to do the same. 

What divides us? What happened to being curious together rather than suspecting anyone who sees an issue differently from us; or seeking to solve problems together rather than attacking each other; helping each other instead of competing with one another? Where has that sense of community, seeking the common good, and sticking together through hard times gone? What does Jesus have to say about it all?

Every day we have choices to make that have some visible impact on the day and more far reaching impacts which we don’t yet see over the long haul. So, once again today, lets choose to listen to God voice and by doing that, choose life.

What is something you procrastinate about doing? Most experts in dealing with procrastination would tell us that by taking things one day at a time, one step at a time, even tasks that seem overwhelming become possible. Character building and developing our relationship with God is something else that we can procrastinate about.  However, if we focus on what is before us and do the next right thing, we can trust God to empower us each step of the journey.

So, how are we meant to put on the breastplate of righteousness? We ask God to show us truth, as we spoke last time.  In addition to this, we ask God to empower us to resist walking after our own desires and instead in all our decisions and actions choose to follow God’s ways.

The Bible tells us that love is patient.  How many of us would profess to be patient? Most of us find it easy to be impatient and the only thing that matters in those moments is not how we got there but will we choose to stay that way.

God is willing, and more than able, to remove all our defects of character if we humbly ask Him.  However, we cannot expect to experience God’s transforming power in our lives if we remain proud and unwilling to admit that we are helpless apart from him.  If we decide what we think needs to go and tell God how we expect Him to act, God will simply allow us to go forward and find out what happens when we base our life on our own limited understanding. This is not the attitude we are invited to in Step 7 when we say:  We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

We know we cannot fix ourselves.  Our confidence in the ability to change is based on the truth that, when we humbly come to God and ask Him to remove our character defects, He will do so.  That’s what we learn in Step 7. Humbly asked him to remove all our shortcomings.