Day 45 – Learning Humility
Brother Lawrence said that “when we undertake the spiritual life we must seriously consider who we are, recognizing that we are worthy of all scorn, unworthy of the name Christian, and subject to all kinds of miseries and a multitude of setbacks. These disturb us and make our health, our moods, our inner dispositions and their outward manifestations changeable; in all, we are persons God wants to humble by means of a multitude of internal and external troubles and trials.”
Brother Lawrence wants to teach us the path of humility.
• We have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23; 5:19).
• We are nothing without Christ (John 15:5).
• We are unworthy servants (Luke 17:10).
This might appear despairing. Yet seeing that “God is God and we are not” is a step toward humility.
Taking a panoramic look at our Christian life, we wonder at times if we have really made any progress at all. We wonder if we are even worthy of the name Christian.
Our Christian lives are full of inconsistencies. We say one thing and do another. We fail to practice what we preach. We are unable to be the person who we are supposed to be, who we desire to be, who God wants us to be. We sin and repent and sin again, stumbling over the very same thing. How humiliating.
For Brother Lawrence, these thoughts and experiences are welcomed for they represent the pathway of humility. We are fallen, finite, flawed, fragile, fallible, faithless, foolish, and fickle! We are like dead men walking (Lamentations 1:20).
We see God; we see ourselves.
We humble ourselves, and a multitude of circumstances further humbles us, chipping away at our pride, reducing us to dust and ashes, and ultimately leading us into the true knowledge of God. Without these experiences, we would not change.
Job, after seeing an overwhelming revelation of God and his sovereignty, announced, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).
Alongside God’s revelation came humility. His painful journey was worth it. Job saw God.
Action Step: When going through a humbling experience, receive the grace of God, for he “shows favor to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34).
This is God’s Word for you today,
Pastor Dave
