Hope For Today "Humility"

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.

To expose what has gone on in our lives, even to ourselves, is humbling for we feel awkward and ashamed about some of the things that are on our inventory list. And yet God invites us to be clear and thorough in this confession, and do so with all our hearts.

The exact nature of our wrongs is rooted in the lie that our problems are caused by what is around us rather than what is within us.  It’s time that we admitted that to God, to ourselves, and to another human being.

We’re reflecting on the 12 Steps of AA and how they open a window for us to recognize and receive the goodness of God.  Today we look at Step Two: We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. The harsh reality is that we need God’s help to even come to know and believe what’s true.  One man who needed help said to Jesus, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”  He was speaking what so many of us find in our hearts.

Living with God in our complicated world often presents difficult challenges such as: waiting for something we feel desperately in need of right now; not retaliating with anger when someone harms us; living with less when we could scam our way into having more; facing the consequences of revealing a difficult truth. In spite of the immediate pain we may feel, God promises that we will be blessed when we make the right choice and do the right thing.

On our own, without God, we are sick and in need of healing.  We are weak, sinful, and often crazy.  We need to be forgiven, cleansed, and enlightened by the truth of God’s word. If we are to live from a pure heart, we need to let the Bible be our handbook and do what it says without compromise.

As we move through Jesus’ list of the kind of attitudes we should have and act on we come to the one that says: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6

It’s not uncommon in our society these days to have our character shaped by isolation and getting our own way in whatever way we can. It's challenging to live in agreement with people who have ideas and ways of doing things that are different from our way.  For healthy relationships to be formed and maintained we need to develop the character quality of co-operation.

We're one week on from our celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, demonstrating His power over sin and death and verifying His claimes to be bringing in a new kingdom, the kingdom of God. How are we meant to live in that kingdom today?

It’s just a week since Good Friday and our remembering the great sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf.  Our world is full of many troubles and the death and resurrection of Jesus is meant to reassure us, particularly during troubled times, that God has a good way forward for us.

This is the day in the Christian calendar when we remember Jesus who is so one with us and yet so much better than all of us. At the Last Supper, Jesus should have been the focus of honour with His friends but he’s the one who paid attention to them and who got up and humbly served them by washing their feet. How do we live according to this example?