Why Should I Be Humble?
Clothe yourself in Humility
The next portion on our discussion of the enemies of True Worship shall delve into humility and pride. Pride is more of an arch enemy of true worship. Pride prevents our recognizing and /or accepting our need to change.Truth Is...
You've no doubt heard the saying:"Pride is before the fall..."; but did you know that more often than not pride is the cause/reason for the fall? So often we may find our own stubborness compels us to maintain an attitude or behavior, or even action(s) that our poor conscience screams and blows whistles, horns and rings bells teling us is NOT the way to go; but due to our refusal to admit we are or have been wrong spurs us onward. The end result almost always is that someone gets hurt in some way or we or others suffer unneccesary loss of some type. Sad but true.
Pride and the unwillingness to back down or compromise/cooperate plays havoc in most relationships where there are problems. Do you hold out until you mate sees YOUR point?Accepts it? Do you stubbornly hold onto your side or view of things until they capitulate and it is established that your way is the way you'll handle things?Pride...It may work briefly, even for a little while. But it also breeds contempt and resentment as well as the lingering peril of how to deal with it when it turns out you were wrong, then you pridefully move on to stubbornly defend that slant. It becomes a snowball rolling down the side of a snowy hillside; it grows far out of proportion to what it would have been if you'd only humbled yourself.
Humility is ultra essential if we as Christians are to please God. God WILL NOT fully work things out for and with you if you hold onto pride. 1Peter 5:5 tells us that God opposes the haughty ones..." That means He's against they who hide behind their pride. Pride comes in many forms. We can overly proud of our race, nationality, status, looks, intelligence, accomplishments, children, mate, lifestylemost anything. But when we place too much faith and importance on these or other things we subtract from the thing we should really be proud of: Having God in our lives and serving him. The thing(s) we are most proud of are the things we exert the most energy for and give the most attention.
Given all the things that God requires of us as far as helping others, praising him, being thoughtful etc, there's no room for pride if we are to effectively meet our God-given responsibilities,It takes a lot of hard work emotionally to be forgiving and civil toward a lot of folks that quite frankly God wants us to. You have to cultivate compassion and empathy for those persons and it requires a lot of prayer and meditation as well as effort. You don't need your own opinion or attitude getting in the way of that if you really want to please God.
Pride and the lack of humility causes more people to lose out in relationships that could actually be the very best thing for them, be it between friends or life's partners(mates). As I repeatedly point out in several articles, how you act, live and behave as well as think all are part of your worship, so pride definitely is an enemey of true worship.
Continuing with 1Peter chapter 5, look at verses 6&7 where we see that keeping within the context of the passage the words spoken are actually directed at the leadership of the congregation(elders, deacons, etc); but it goes well for all of us to take heed of the counsel given as it says:"Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that He may exult you in due time..." Then verse 7:"Casting all your cares upon him for He cares for you...". Here we are informed that when and by humbling ourself we are more able to honestly talk to God about our soncerns, our weaknesses, our faults, all the negative stuff we KNOW is there and are often to proud to discuss with anyone else. We can be open with God only if we have a humble spirit within us.
Yes, humility is the key to opening the door to the rich blessing of having jehovah in our lives FULLY and completely, as He handles all our issues. As always I encourage prayer and supplication on ths matter. ASK God to help you be more humble...HE WILL!!! All you have to do is be HUMBLE enough to be honest and admit to him that you really need to be more humble...Truth Is...
Part 2 is coming of course!
b-blessed!
