Developing a Habit of Humility
I don’t know if you think much about becoming a humbler person, or if you have any habits in your life that will help grow more humble, but you should. Jesus Christ, although he was in nature God, was continually acting in humility during his years of ministry on earth. And we are following the leader. God has deposited a seed in you, and he wants to see you grow. God has put a flame inside of you, and that flame should burn bright and be a light to the world. There is more in you than you know, and without good habits, including a habit of humbling yourself, you will not find out what God dreams for you.
The most important thing you can do to nurture humility in yourself is to serve. Let your service be done as secretly as possible and begin moving your identity from someone who serves sometimes to becoming a servant. Look at Matthew 20:20-28.
For the past month or so I’ve been trying to do three things that author Dallas Willard guaranteed will help me to grow in humility: 1. Don’t pretend to be what I’m not. Read Luke 18:9-14 to see something Jesus said about that. 2. Don’t assume a favorable position in any respect. Jesus talks about this in Luke 14:7-14. 3. Don’t try to push people around or override their will. In Matthew 11:28 and 29 Jesus talks about the yoke that he has for each of us. If we are trying to put people under our yoke, we will not be leading them to His yoke.
A recurring conversation in my past week has been people who are in trouble and have no idea where to go for help. Every time I heard these stories I thought, “Why didn’t you come to my house?” Well, in these cases these people didn’t know me at the time. But what about the people who do know us, but don’t know that we would humble ourselves for them even at a high cost. Helping someone by talking to them at 3 AM or offering a meal or a week of meals is humbling—not because it makes you think less of yourself, but it makes you think of yourself less. And where there is a community of Christians who are committed to being humble as Jesus is, there will be good fruit and people will respond to the Good News.
That seed that’s been planted in you had to die to begin to grow, and you need to continue to die to yourself to let that seed grow, to let that light shine. Who will you serve this week? Who needs to know that you are there for them if the rest of their world falls apart? Do something to develop a habit of humility.
