How to Rock This Humility Thing!

I totally rock at being humble!

Wait…grrrrr!

Humility is hard…

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

I’ve heard this Bible verse read every year on the National Day of Prayer and never once has it been followed by, “Lord show me what I need to change.” It is usually followed by prayers for all the other people who are causing the downfall of our great nation.

It’s a little laughable if you think about it. The verse says “If my people will humble themselves.” We read it and think that it takes humility to pray! And then we pridefully blame the other political party, the people that don’t hold our moral values, and basically anyone that doesn’t agree with us. So, in our “humility” we blame everyone else for the problems in our world. And we “seek God’s face” by asking him to change everyone else to be more like us.

I have my own twisted version of this. I pray for the church to quit doing this. Then in those rare moments where I actually seek God and I actually listen to hear something other than confirmation of what I already think….In those moments, I realize that I need to change.

Humility is hard.

³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Think about this for a few days. Try to wrap your mind around what was happening here. Jesus, fully God and fully human, was getting ready to willingly offer himself as a sacrifice for our sins so that we can have RIGHT STANDING with God. Just before enduring all that he was about to endure, he took on the job of the lowest of servants and humbly washed his disciples’ feet.

It’s absolutely unbelievable. I mean, I get mad when I cook for people and they don’t put their dishes in the dishwasher. After all, I did something for you, the least you could do is be grateful and help me out. Right?

But Jesus wasn’t like that all. He had all power. He was going to humble himself and allow himself to be tortured, beaten, and nailed to a cross. It seems like he would have told his disciples, “Listen, I’m about to have a hard week, you guys need to wait on me.”

But he was filled with so much love for his disciples that he served them.

Actually, in the next chapters, we see several instances where he was preparing his disciples for all that they were going to face.

The whole time he was doing this, he knew that they were all going to desert him.

That is a love that is like none I have ever seen. It’s humility beyond comprehension. We think helping someone in a lower social class is being humble. Jesus is GOD and he didn’t just associate with his disciples, he served them…

I know I keep repeating myself, but it seriously blows my mind. If you read my blog regularly, you know I’ve been obsessing on how “big” or powerful God is. I use the analogy of him caring about us being crazier than if the president of the US came to your house, knocked on your door and said “I’m here to care for some ants in your back yard.” God is that far above us! Yet he IS also love. Because of his indescribable love for us, we have the amazing privilege of getting to have a relationship with him.

Humility is hard.

When I try to be humble, I may do OK for a while, but I want people to notice how humble I am and then I start resenting that people don’t appreciate my humility. Which is hilarious and really sad.

I’ve been praying about this passage for over a week and wondering why and how God could want to wash people’s feet. I think there are two reasons:

Jesus had nothing to prove. He knew that he had all power. He didn’t need approval from others. He was focused on doing what was best for his followers.

Jesus was motivated by love. Jesus knew that his disciples were going to suffer because of him. He also knew that they were going to start churches in his name. He lovingly served his disciples to show them how to love others.

Jesus tells all of his followers to love like he did.

¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

As I pray and try to focus on loving like Jesus did. I experience real humility as I think of how he loved people compared to how I love! He never worried about his reputation. He cared for and included people that he was supposed to shun. He associated with people that were considered unclean and scandalously sinful. He allowed himself to be known as a drunkard and a friend of sinners because he didn’t need to impress anyone. He was completely assured of who he was and motivated by love.

Me: That’s a pretty tall order! I mean, Jesus, do you see how obnoxious people are today? I don’t think I can do this! I really like recognition and I’m pretty insecure. I mean you are God and I’m a granny blogger…”

Jesus: “But you are mine and I am with you! Walk with me and I will teach you.”

So…I’m learning and growing and I totally nailed that humility thing!

Oh…wait…grrrr….well I’m growing!

Did I mention humility is HARD?!

Blessings,

Cindy

P.S. I have been focusing on verse 34 and painting signs about this verse. The signs in this post are signs I painted. Please check out my FB page “Maw Maw Thia’s Sayings” click here to the signs I made.

I will be adding more signs as I have time. My motivation is truly to get people to focus on following God, but I’d sure like to make $ too! So check out my page and share it please!