Humble (Whatever...Part 2)

In my previous post, I mentioned that we needed to humble ourselves and repent individually of our own wrong thoughts or doings. As I have thought more about the passage in II Chronicles, the word "humble" keeps echoing in my mind. It seemed appropriate to look at what that means before continuing to dig into Philippians 4. As I watch the news and look at what is happening in our country and around the world, it feels like this word is not being exhibited very much. What does it really mean to be humble? How is it exhibited? 

Currently I am reading the book The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. It is a fascinating account of nine university men competing to be in the number one boat with hopes of making it to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The following excerpt caught my attention:

"The boys in the Clipper had been winnowed down by punishing competition, and in the winnowing a kind of common character had issued forth: they were all skilled, they were all tough, they were all fiercely determined, but they were also all good-hearted. Every one of them had come from humble origins or been humbled by the ravages of the hard times in which they had grown up. Each in his own way, they had all learned that nothing could be taken for granted in life, that for all their strength and good looks and youth, forces were at work in the world that were greater than they. The challenges they had faced together had taught them humility--the need to subsume their individual egos for the sake of the boat as a whole--and humility was the common gateway through which they were able now to come together and begin to do what they had not been able to do before."

These young men had been through many challenging situations in their young years, but had persevered, worked hard, never given up, and had learned how to work together for the good of all. In the process, they learned humility. They learned to not think too highly of themselves realizing that they could easily be replaced or left behind. They learned to pull together as if they were one. What a lesson for us today! If each person practiced being humble and good-hearted, what a change this world would see.

Our prime example of humility is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Who, even though He is God, humbled Himself and came to earth, for our sake, in obedience to His father. I was very disturbed to read that not only American flags are being burned in the streets of some cities, but Bibles also. Our ability to know right and wrong, plus how to find true and lasting freedom comes from the Bible. Those who would do such things show how very lost they are. Nothing speaks the truth and teaches us how to live together humbly and love one another better than God's word:

Philippians 2:3-11

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, 

but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, 

but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God, 

did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,

being born in the likeness of men. 

And being found in human form, he humbled himself 

by becoming obedient to the point of death, 

even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him

 and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

One day we will all be humbled before God's throne. One day every knee will bow to Jesus and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. One day there will be no choice. Choose this day whom you will serve. I choose Jesus. Will you?