Finding our way through the wilderness

Luke 18:9-14

New International Version (NIV)

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

 ⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

   ¹³ "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

   ¹⁴ "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

Day Twenty-Six

Humility

When we think of humility or being humble, we think of someone that is insignificant, or someone who has low self-esteem, or someone who gets pushed around, and someone who does not take up from themselves. In fact the Oxford English Dictionary defines humble as, "having or showing a modest or low estimate of one's own importance. Other definitions include not being assertive and ranking low in a hierarchy or scale. The last definition is what we most likely think of when we think of someone that is humble. So in the world's view having humility is a disadvantage or a limitation that can only hinder us.

While the world views humility as a weakness, the bible tells us that this is our greatest strength. Jesus also told us that to humble ourselves by saying those who are first will be last and those are last will be first.(Matthew 20:16) Also the bible tells us that we must humble ourselves before God and pray(2 Chronicles 7:14). So as Christians one of the most important qualities for us to have is humility.

However, being humble is this world is often a hard thing to do because the way the world treats you when you humble yourself. For if we are to humble ourselves before God we must also humble ourselves to others, believers and nonbelievers, that we see daily. This can be hard because like we said before the world view this as a weakness and will try and take advantage of us at every opportunity. Humility is also hard because the enemy's most significant characteristic is pride. Pride got Satan cast down from heaven (Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:17) and this is a characteristic that he wants to instill in us as well, so that we to can rebel against God.

The good news is that if we are having trouble humbling ourselves, we can look to the bible for direction. In our scripture above Jesus talks of two men of different backgrounds that are praying. The first is a Pharisee, one of the religious leaders during Jesus' time, and he thanks God for making him better than sinners like robbers, murderers, evildoer, adulterers, and even the tax collector that was beside him. He knew was better because he fasted twice a week and tithed a tenth of all that he received which was required by law. The other man which was a tax collector, who were despised at the time because most were cheaters and corrupted, pray a simple prayer for the Lord to have mercy on him because he was a sinner. Jesus said that the tax collector, not the law abiding Pharisee, went home justified before the Lord.

What can we take from this? One thing is that all of our good deeds are not from our own doing. It is by the grace of the Holy Spirit that we do all of the good that we do. Left on our own accord, if we all were to tell the truth, we would follow our own rules; not those set by God.

Secondly, we are no better than sinners and evildoers. Like we talk about back on day twenty, the only difference between us and them is that we are saved by grace. Instead of judging them or talking down to or about them, we should pray for people that are still held captive by sin. And when we pray we should not pray like we are condemning them for their sins but we should pray that God will open the hearts like He did ours.

Lastly, when we acknowledge the fact that we are sinners and pray for mercy we are humbling ourselves before God. This pleases God more than all of our good deeds, because it lets Him know that we know that totally reliant on Him. When we humble ourselves before the Lord everything else will start to fall in to place.

Jesus then went on to say that those who exalted themselves will be humbled and those that humbled themselves would be exalted. Reading these words we see that God rejoices in the humble and opposes the proud (James 4:6) so if we want to live a spirituality successful life and reach our promised land we must learn how to humble ourselves.

We need to know that when we humble ourselves that does in no way make us insignificant in the eyes of God. For His words tells us that we are Always valuable in His sight (Matthew 6:26). So we should not like this be a hindrance in us humbling ourselves, though the enemy will try and trick us into thinking this way.

Humility can be a hard thing to achieve, but like anything else it can be achieved all it takes is practice. The more you practice being humble the more humble you will become. And we need to apply this to our daily and spiritual lives. Because again the two correlate with one another, you cannot have two different mindsets. The way you act in one the same way you will act in the other.

For all of us that are having trouble humbling ourselves here is a wonderful prayer of Humility that I found on the internet. http://www.ramshornstudio.com/humility.htm

Finally, let me share what is my great lesson in humility. When I was young a teacher once told me that I needed to take pride in my work while not being proud. This statement confused me until I came to realized that I can strive to do my best but I'm humbled by the fact that I know that my talents are a gift from God and not of my own doing.

Join us tomorrow as we continue our journey. Until then God Bless.