June 1 - Proverbs 17:1-19:29

Good morning everyone,

Today in our reading we continue on with more of Solomon’s wise words in the proverbs where, humility, a modest or low view of one's own importance; humbleness, showcased as a virtue, is a reoccurring theme and often contrasted to pride, a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements. Don’t let that get passed you, “one’s OWN” achievements.

The word humility (humble, humbled, humbleness, you get the picture) appears 71 times in the Bible. I’m thinking if God tells us something 71 times, it’s probably pretty important to Him, right? So let’s do a bit of contrasting ourselves; shall we? To be humble is to be courteous and respectful of others, it allows us to go more than half way to graciously meet the needs or demands of others.  While pride is aggressive, arrogant, boastful, and full of vanity. Humility allows us to say, "No, you first, my friend.” while pride desperately runs to cut one off and slams in front of them exclaiming, “Me first.” Humility is the mortal enemy of pride. 

Pride can be a real beast. In another season of my life I co-owned a restaurant, staffing servers, counter people, kitchen cooks, delivery drivers and of course shift managers averaging a hundred employees on payroll at any given time. It was our policy to promote from within so when one of our managers would give notice, it being time for them to move on, we started looking at who we had on board that would be a good candidate to manage a shift. Of course we looked at integrity, work ethics, personality, how well they did under pressure, who was a good motivator, and so on, there were many things we factored in; but the hardest to figure, was pride. I promise you, we would take meek and mild Clark Kent who never ruffled the feathers of anyone and make him (or her) a manager and WHAM!, just like that, pride raised it’s ugly head and they developed THE “power trip” that caused eyes to roll, and “talk to the hand” responses. It was cRaZy how their own friends would wonder, “who are you and what did you do with my BFF?” 

Even the sweetest and kindest of people have to work on being humble. Humility is a heart issue, that is to say, we aren’t naturally humble, nor can we be suddenly humble just by acting a certain way or saying, “Yea, I’m humble now.” No, humility starts in our hearts. Jesus was the perfect example of humility. He knew He was, Lord, Teacher, Healer, Son of God, Prince of Peace, while He was here on earth however, Jesus also put himself second in order to show others how much God loved them and we are called to do the same. 

James 4:10 says, ”Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”  and 1 Peter 5:6 says, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” Can you think of anything better than being exalted by God? Yea … No, me either. Outward obedience to rules is not as valuable in God’s eyes as a humble heart that simply does what is right. Micha 6:8  says, “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Simple stuff … Amen?

Have a good day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …