Getting Humbled?

Have people found out you are not that sharp? Did you receive an unfavorable review? Has the letter of termination been sent your way? Is it becoming clear that people do not see you as the messianic hero in their life?

Is your body getting older and do you find a depreciating ability to “stun the world” with your beauty or “be the man” with your brawn?

Have you learned that you are not the all-sufficient spouse? Has your lover proven to have respect, adoration, or affection for another?

How’s it going mom and dad? Did your books, and teaching, and church, and discipline fail you? Though you have labored to raise Christ-honoring worshipers, are you broken hearted and embarrassed by their lack of affection for Christ and his ways?

Are you experiencing that mid-life crisis right now? Did you work tirelessly to get where you are only to hate your current location and occupation?

When you consider your heroes, heroines, and personal goals, are you beginning to realize the accomplishments of someone else are a bit out of your reach?

How is that sinful thorn in the flesh coming? Did it raise its ugly head again after you swore it would no more? Have you been climbing the rungs of the ladder of sanctification only to find it is laying horizontal on the ground?

Good!

Hasn’t the Father promised to lovingly disciple and discipline those who are his own?

Hasn’t the Son promised to finish that which he has begun?

Hasn’t the Spirit promised to point out your fleshly pride and sinful idols?

Weren’t you just at church praying for personal revival and singing, “Have Thine Own Way, Lord?”

Aren’t you now more tender, more desperate, more hungry for satisfaction and encouragement from your Savior and Lord?

Don’t you find yourself less arrogant in assessing and addressing others now that your knees have been knocked out from underneath you?

Admit it, you find yourself desiring to pray more than in former days.

Rejoice! The Apostle James writes:

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6)

Friends, it is an act of God’s grace when he makes his children humble, and he further blesses by giving his humbled children grace. Your Father is not harming you; he is helping you. Your Father is not judging you; he is improving you. Your Father is not moving away from you; he is drawing near. Your Father is not done with you; he is just making you a better servant of his for your next mission.

Yes it is true. You were not that good in the first place. You are not that good now. But now you know it, and you are better off than you were before. Therefore, with humble confidence go serve your Father, your family, your church, and your neighbors. God has graced you with humiliation. God has graced you with a tad-bit  more humility. And now God wishes to use you as an instrument of grace ready to humbly serve him and others.