by Kathy Stanford

He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8

In recent months I have failed to meet deadlines, had a painful misunderstanding with a dear friend, completely forgot – and therefore missed- other deadlines and that is only a sampling. I have heard “You mean you’re human?” said in that light-hearted way meant to comfort, so many times, I’ve grown to dislike it immensely.  I often hear warnings not to pray for patience. I would like to add humility to that warning. For a little while now, I have been seeking to understand what is true godly humility. I have only scratched the surface of understanding, but I thought I’d share what I’ve learned so far.

One aspect of humility is to own it with grace when I “mess up”. Trying to bluff our way through a mistake, hoping others won’t notice, is not only lacking in humility, it’s living a lie. The word “transparency” comes to mind. And the flip side of that truth is to freely and immediately give grace when others “mess up”.  Gloating in another person’s mistake or crowing “I told you so”, “I knew this would happen” (one of my personal downfalls) is not living with humility. Rather we should seek to lessen their embarrassment and try to encourage them.

I also have found humility to be necessary for obedience. As long as I think I know “how things ought to be” I will argue with God instead of immediately obey. It takes humility to submit to God’s leadership.  Of course Jesus gave us the best example of what it means to live with humility.

Phil 2:3-8  “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; ⁴do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. ⁵Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

I hope you knew I was not serious when I said not to pray for humility. We definitely should pray that God will teach us to live with the true humility that Jesus showed. It may not be a comfortable lesson to learn, but it will take us a step closer to having the image of Christ.

“Dear Jesus, I confess my desires to be “in control” and to “always be right”. Please help me to live as you did, empty of self and humble in spirit. Help me to be an encouragement to those around me, shining the light on their strengths and not their weaknesses.”

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