Did you ever have one of those moments that alters the direction of your life? I think I just had one yesterday. Having been recently challenged by Lynn http://www.helpiworkwithchildren.blogspot.com about being stuck in May :-) I wanted to share it with you.
Recently I have been reading 'Every Day with Jesus' a daily devotional written by Selwyn Hughes. The particular message that day was "The true way to be humble". Up until this point I unfortunately agreed too readily with the picture above. I fostered the belief that humilty was to put myself down so as not to promote myself or be too forthcoming for fear of becoming proud or overbearing. It has been a truly sad state to be in. I have had a reluctance to exercise my gifts and abilities and in many ways allowed myself to be a shadow of the person God has created me to be. I allowed myself to have an inferiority complex, always comparing myself to friends and colleagues that were realising various levels of success in whatever they were involved with.
The true way to be humble according to Phillip Brooks: "is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is."
When I read this I was really struck by two things: Firstly that God gives me permission to try my best at everything - it is a privilege and freedom that I can rejoice in knowing that even if I make mistakes he will still love me. Secondly that no matter how hard I try and how successful I get I will still be overshadowed by the greatness of Jesus and what he has achieved for us by choosing to endure death and separation from God the Father on the cross.
Selwyn Hughes points out that humilty can never be self-belittlement, it can only flow out of a conciousness of God's greatness. I heard someone say once that: "humilty is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less". I now realise that when I am focussed on doing my best in everything I am always thinking less of myself and more of the projects and people I am trying to serve. Praise God!
If I could change the message on the sign above it would read: "Think great things of yourself, you can be safe in the knowledge that there is one greater still who deserves all the praise!"
2 comments:
Oh no, sorry, didn't mean to mortify you into posting Nick. But your comments and reflections are always really good (sook sook) No, it's true. Me and Mrs F miss not having anything to new to read on your blog!
Welcome back - from one who really will become the least regular blogger!!
(thanks for the ad - go and visit everyone!!)
Interestingly, I just listened to a John Piper sermon where he said something very similar based on Romans 12:3 "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."
In other words our faith in God - His greatness; His glory; His majesty; lets us think of ourselves not too highly.
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