Day 227
Matthew 23:12
"And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."
Peter told us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so He could exalt us in due time. Humbling ourselves is something we should be careful to do on a regular basis. Jesus gave us some insight that should be sufficient to help us stay humble. In Matthew 23:12, He revealed that the alternative to not humbling ourselves is suffering humiliation.
Pride can make us fail to humble ourselves, but it always backfires. When we think of protecting our pride, we must always remember that the very thing we are protecting is going to be hurt worse ifwe do not give priority to humility. Humbling ourselves is far less painful than suffering humiliation. When we humble ourselves, we step down and possibly conceal the fact that we were struggling with pride. When we are put down or abased, we are humiliated, and our pride is often exposed by that time.
Let us follow the example of Christ and walk in humility.
As He ministered on the earth for three and a half years, He did not hesitate to reveal who He really was. However, He only shared this insight with those who needed to know. He spoke of His relationship with God when it was necessary. Christ gave God the Father the glory for all that was accomplished through His ministry. Jesus pointed His followers to God the Father, expressing a desire for them to know Hirn and to know how good He was. Our Savior and Lord did things He did not have to do to show us that greatness is not looking and acting important, but rather serving and being valuable to others by giving out of love.
With God's help, I will follow the example of Jesus and remain humble in the sight of God. My desire is to make God look good and cause people to want to know and serve Him.