the necessity of humility

7“Two things I ask of you, O Lord;
do not refuse me before I die:
8Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
9Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God. (proverbs 30)

Recently, I've been listening to a sermon series on humility. As I listened, I realized more and more just how prideful I am, how subtly pride can manifest itself in our lives, and be the very root of so many of our conflicts with ourselves and others while masking itself from us. For example, being reluctant to do something because you do not want others to see you as prideful is actually a form of pride. Ironic isn't it? Because behind that reluctance lies a fear of what others will say about you, how others will see you, &because you have a pride and reputation to maintain and safeguard from misconceptions of you, you do not want to step out for fear that they will see you in a way that you do not deem correct. To be really humble, we must focus our eyes on Jesus and Jesus alone, imitate his life, &to see everything out of His perspective, which is so much easier said than done. Pride can be so easily hidden from ourselves, and that scares me the most.

I happened to read 2 Chronicles 14-16 yesterday about Asa, king of Judah. At the beginning of his reign, Asa did what was right in God's eyes:

4He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to obey his laws and commands. 5He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him. (2 chronicles 14)

&during war, he trusted in God to win the war for them even when the odds were against them. :

11Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O Lord, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you.”

12The Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled, 13and Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. Such a great number of Cushites fell that they could not recover; they were crushed before the Lord and his forces.

wow, what a God-fearing king. Not only that, he also had God's favor:

1The Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded. 2He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. ... But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.” (chp 15)

he was faithful to God in everything he did. he kept to the commands of God and had all his people seek God. &God rewarded him:

19There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.

But things took a turn for the worse in his 36th year. Baasha, king of Israel, was fortifying a city nearby to go against Asa, and instead of turning to God for help, Asa went to Ben-Hadad king of Aram. Asa made a treaty with Ben-Hadad and Baasha king of Israel retreated. However, because Asa decided to rely on men rather than God, God was not pleased:

7At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. 8Were not the Cushites^b and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen^c? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. 9For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.” (chp 16)

Asa, instead of humbling and repenting himself immediately (for God often shows mercy when we humble ourselves immediately), becomes enraged & throws the seer into prison. Asa's end was not a happy one. From then on, he never sought the Lord, even at the end of his life when he was afflicted with a disease:

Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians. (2 chronicles 16:12)

What caused Asa to go from such a God-fearing king who walked in God's ways to a king who was so unwilling to seek the Lord? I believe that one of the factors was pride. At the beginning of his reign, Asa relied on God, especially since he could see that he was so very outnumbered by the enemy. I've realized that many times, it is easier to trust in God during bad times than during good times. This is because during bad times, we know things are bad, we see the limits of our abilities and knowledge and recognize easier the limitless power and faithfulness of God. Anyway, sometimes we don't seem to have many other options to go by. It's easier to humble ourselves when we really realize how bad everything is going because we see more clearly how powerless we are.

But when things are going well, and everything is fine and dandy, God very often gets pushed into the back of our minds. We know that God blessed us with everything, but after awhile, we start taking our comfortable surroundings for granted and start taking pride in what we think was our doing. I think that this may in part be what led to Asa's downfall. Those 30+ years without war were a gift and blessing from God, and Asa knew it at the beginning. But I think that as the years went by, as Judah prospered, and her people lived in peace, Asa began to drift from God and take pride in himself and his kingdom. And in that 36th year, when the test came to see if Asa would still rely on God, he failed. Even worse was when God pointed out his failure to recognize God as God of Judah and gave him a chance to humble himself and repent, Asa instead becomes enraged and throws God's servant into jail. I believe that the disease at the end of his life can be seen as a God given opportunity to bring Asa back to God. All Asa had to do was humble himself and repent and seek the Almighty God's assistance, but Asa just wouldn't, that's how far his pride had taken him from God.

Pride is a scary thing, and it is so very opposite to the life that God intends for us to have. The pastor that I am listening to said that Jesus, our Lord and King, is really the epitome of humility. And if we, as Christians, really do want to live a godly life that honors God and that upholds Jesus as king of our lives, then we must be humble. Because how can a humble king dwell in me if I am proud? My pride would push him out &set myself on the throne of my life. And he, being the humble king that he is, will not force himself into my life.

For me, I've realized that the most common manifestations of pride is through judging/criticizing others. Examples of judging and criticizing would be like if I am patient and considerate but I see someone else who is not, and I think to myself of how ungodly that person is. This is pride, and Paul says in 1 corinthians 4:7:

7For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Every good thing is a gift from God. My patience and consideration of others is really a grace and gift from God. Maybe I grew up with a well mannered family or maybe I was just born with a better temper, either way, both I received by grace from God and so I would have no reason to boast about it.

The pastor told a story that I really liked. A woman was passing out religious pamphlets one day. She handed one to a guy walking by. The guy took it, spat on it, and threw it on the floor. The woman picked up the pamphlet, wiped the spit off onto her nice dress, and said "I'm sorry. I didn't know that you would be offended by that pamphlet. Let me give you another one." The guy was taken aback and instead stammered that he will take the original pamphlet instead.

I think if I had been that woman, I would have been fuming with anger and had thought that it was my right to feel angry. After all, it was so disrespectful right? But I guess that's what really strikes me about humility, it's that we don't demand or act by what the world says is our rights. Instead we look to God for justice, for victory, and basically for everything.
"5But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed. " (Mark 15:5) I like that verse, because it reminds me that when we are really living a life with its source in God, we will amaze people & God will do the rest. I find it so amazing that a humility that results in a willingness to quietly take the mistreatment by others, to finish the tasks that do not deserve the spot light, and to love and encourage those who hurt me can result in me being seen as 'stupid' and a 'push-over' by the rest of society and yet can have such power that it will shock and startle those same people.

Pride is a big hindrance to our growing mature spiritually. If we want to serve God some day, we must learn humility, lest we shame God's name by demanding our "rights" or by thinking we are better than those around us. Growing up in a church, I've really come to appreciate those who serve in the church. Those who want to serve in the church must really learn to practice humility and give up their rights. The church is not like the work place. In the work place, you can expect/demand a higher salary as your skills increase or as you work longer in the place. In the work place, if you are the manager, you can demand respect. Not so in the church. Jesus died for us and bought us with his blood. And if our Master didn't demand his rights (philippians 2:6), then how can we, the servants, demand any rights?

here's a nice article on humility &Job that i found: http://northwaybaptistchurch.com/resources/morning-manna/184-humble-yourself-now.html