Thoughts on Humility -part 7 - More Blessings

Yes, there are more blessings to look forward to.  God is waiting to bless us with all spiritual blessings, we are the ones holding Him up.  Ephesians 1:3  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.'

Matthew 18:4  "Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."  Most little children are humble, aren't they?  We would do well to be the same if we want to be great in God's kingdom.

Proverbs 3:34  "Surely He scorns the scorner, but gives grace to the humble."  We all need His grace, we can't live without it, so it is a great blessing of grace added to all the rest of the blessings that being humble bring.  We cannot out give God, it is impossible, He has so much stored up for us, it is up to us whether we will receive His gifts or not.

James 4:6  "But He gives more grace, therefore He says;  God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."  See, He gives even more grace to the humble in heart.

He even wants to heal our land or our nation, as we read in 2 Chronicles 7:14.  He is such a great God, there is no limit to what He wants to do for us if we just humble ourselves in His sight and seek Him faithfully.
Can you fathom all these gifts that He wants to pour out on us if we will just humble ourselves before Him and before others and esteem others better than ourselves and put others first?

1 Peter 5:5,6,7  "Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders, Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.  Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you."  Can you hear God pleading to submit ourselves to one another and be clothed with humility so that He can bless us because He cares for us.  How can we turn that down?  Why would we turn it down?  I don't have a good answer, do you?

Tomorrow, our study will be on something called 'false humility', a warning no less that we could if we are not careful, get caught up in.  Be sure to tune in, warnings are always welcome to keep us on track.  Be faithful my friend, God does care for you, so cast your cares on Him and let Him take care of you.  He is taking good care of me and He will do the same for you.  Grandma Joan

Thoughts on Humility - part 6 - Blessings On The Humble in Spirit

I think it is time after all these studies on humility to see what God has in store for us when we humble ourselves in the presence of the Lord.  Pay close attention because this is GOOD.

Remember I mentioned King Solomon the other day and how God blessed him with a wise and understanding heart and because that is what he asked for, God also blessed him with riches and honor.  You will find that in 1 Kings 3:11-18  if you want to recap the story.  Also remember what Proverbs says in chapter 22: 4  "By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life."

2 Chronicles 7:14,15  "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."  Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place."  We want God's eyes open and His ears attentive to our prayers, don't we, so let's humble ourselves and seek His face and turn from our proud and evil ways and then He will hear us and answer our prayers.  What a beautiful promise.

Matthew 23:12  "And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
If we humble ourselves, we will be exalted, but that shouldn't be our goal, our goal is to humble ourselves and let the Lord do the exalting if there is any to be done.

James 4:10  "Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."  If we humble ourselves in His sight, He will lift us up, and it is OK if He does it, but we aren't responsible for the lifting up.

Isaiah 57:15  "For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."  OK, contrite means repentant, so if we have a repentant and humble spirit, He will revive our hearts and spirit and we do need revived, don't we?  I am so thankful for this study and so grateful for God's leading in it, it has blessed me abundantly and I hope you have been blessed but hold on, there are more blessings coming up in the next study.  Grandma Joan

Thoughts on Humility - part 5

How are you doing with your practicing humility?  Are things better?  Is your life sweeter?  Are you loved more?  I know that Jesus is able to shower you more with His love because you are bringing your life into harmony with His.  I can't say that He loves you more because His love knows no bounds and it is no less and no more, it is just the same, it is us that change not Him.

I have given you some heavy thoughts to work on, I know because I have to work on them too.  But actually I have found that when I pray and ask for His help in these things, I find myself doing them without thinking, so I believe if we are sincere he will come in and make His abode with us and strengthen us to do what we normally wouldn't do.  I works for me and I am sure it will work for you.

Sanctification means to consecrate, and humility is the mark of true sanctification.  If we are truly humble, we will be truly sanctified.  That is a wonderful thought and I believe it is true.  When you have true humility you have victory over your pet sins.  Christ's gentleness is true humility and real humility is depending on God's strength to overcome, not trying in our own strength.  We can't do it on our own power, that is why so many people give up on the Christian life, they are trying to be a Christian without God's power in their life.  It is absolutely impossible to do it on our own.

When I was reading the other day, I found this thought that I thought would be most helpful.  "True religion is founded upon love to God, which also leads us to love one another.  It is full of gratitude, humility, long-suffering.  It is self-sacrificing, forbearing, merciful and forgiving.  It sanctifies the whole life and extends its influence over others."  Isn't that the way we should live?  I believe it is and it is a wonderful way to live.  I have to admit that my life hasn't been like that but by God's grace it will be from now on.  I intend to let God have His way with me, what about you?

In our next study on humility, I want to share some of the blessings from the Bible on humility, I know they will bless you.  So until then, God bless your efforts in leaning on Him for the victories in your life.  I know He will.  Grandma Joan

Thoughts on humility - part 4

This has been such an enlightening study, I hope it is helping you as much as it has me.  So far we have learned that humility is putting others first, have you tried that?  It's great!  And esteeming others better than yourselves, have you tried that, this is a little harder isn't it?  Then we need to learn to listen and not do all the talking, that takes care of the meek and quiet spirit and then to top it all off we learned that we need to be dead to self and to manifest kindness, respect, noble love, and generosity even to those whom we think are wicked people.

That was quite a study wasn't it, actually it was three studies and today we are going to learn not to be proud or boastful.  It is so easy to brag about something that we have accomplished and expect others to feel the same way, when they may not appreciate our bragging, they may see it as an ego trip or maybe something worse, when if we just let others form their own opinion about our accomplishments, we would probably feel a lot better about it. It would be quite a let down experience if it turned into a humiliating experience, so let's be careful about our boasting and our pride about our accomplishments.

Humility is a Christian grace and if we call ourselves Christians, then this grace will be part of our lives, will it not?

Humility is the road to honor, remember King Solomon when he became king, he prayed and asked God for an understanding heart that he might discern justice and because he was humble and only asked for an understanding heart to rule God's people well, God honored him with a wise and understanding heart and also with riches and honor.  See 1 Kings 3:11-18.  God honors those who are humble in spirit and who put others first.

Proverbs 22:4   "By humility and the fear of the Lord, are riches and honor and life."  Humility is such an important part of the Christian's life, I am overwhelmed with what I am learning and I am not through yet.  I surely hope you are being blessed too.  These studies have been short because they have been so deep for the heart and mind to grasp and put to practice, at least for most of us.  I have been praying over them, that I might take it all to heart and become a humble servant of Christ.  That is really what it is all about and what I really want to be.  How about you?  Are you willing to put self aside and humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, as the song goes.  I am and I hope that you feel the same way.  This is quite a journey, but we can travel it together and become what Christ wants us to be, can't we?  Grandma Joan

Thoughts on Humility - part 3

Well, how are you doing?  I bet you are doing great on this subject of humility.  It sure makes our world a better place to live doesn't it?  My world is pretty small and so I don't have much to work on  but eventually it should broaden and give me a lot more to work on.

Today's topic is a hard one and I am almost afraid to mention it but it is so important I have to.  Humility is being dead to self, not lifting self up, not getting upset if things don't go our way, manifesting kindness, respect, noble love, generosity , even to those that we consider wicked people or unworthy of our attention.

How's that for hitting us on the head?  WOW!  Did I need that or didn't I?  How about you?  That was a good one, one that is probably hard on our ego  Getting rid of pride, not getting upset if things don't go my way, showing kindness, respect, noble love, generosity to those whom I consider unworthy of my attention or of wicked conduct.  Can I do that?  I am sure that I can with God's help but not on my own.

I think of Jesus humbling Himself, coming from glory to this fallen planet and bowing to the least of these and lifting them up to His stature, the people must have felt good in His presence and knew they were loved.  Isn't that what we should be doing?  I hope that I am responsible for helping to lift you up not to my stature but to His and I hope you know that you are loved and then it is your turn to follow His example and do the same to others.  Can you do that?  How much your little world is being blessed by the things you are learning and I am learning on this simple little word 'humility'.  God bless you as you put it to practice.  Grandma Joan

Thoughts on Humility part 2

Well, how did you do in your first trial at being humble?  Did you put everyone else first before yourself?
Did you esteem others better than yourself?  It might be a tough assignment but worthy of all the effort you put into it and it will make others feel so good to be around you, I'm sure.

My next thought on humility is a 'meek and quiet spirit'.  What do you think about that?  Does it sound hard to do?  My thought on that would be a meek spirit would be someone who puts others first and esteems them better than themselves.  Don't you think?

Then a quiet spirit would be someone who would be a great listener, don't you think?  Are you a great listener?  I really don't know if I am or if I want to hold the floor and do all the talking, I am going to have to evaluate myself on that one, I think I probably listen some of the time and then other times do all the talking, or be thinking of what I am going to say next and not listening to what they are saying.  That doesn't sound very humble, does it?  This is a great lesson for me and one that I am afraid to say I need to learn very well.

So to cap off the thoughts on humility, it is putting others first, esteeming them better than myself and you might call that a meek or humble spirit and a quiet spirit would be a good listener.  So for today, let's practice being meek and listening to what others have to say instead of doing all the talking which a lot of us like to do I'm sure.  Sometimes I get so lonely I probably bore people to death when they come to see me.  I hope not and will have to make sure that I do more listening than talking.  A great idea to say the least.  Let's try it and see if we can't make our world a little better by being a good listener.  Tomorrow more thoughts on humility.
Have a good time trying these ideas out.  It's fun knowing we are becoming more like Jesus, He was the humble One and we want to be like Him.  Grandma Joan

Thoughts on Humility

The last few days the word humility has been haunting me at every step and I am not kidding. I figured that God had something special to talk to me about, so I set about studying into the word and I guess I was right, He had a lot to talk to me about and I won't be able to get it all in one study but I will  start with a few facts that I have uncovered and see if you see what I see in this study.

What do you think humility means?  The dictionary says, meekness.  I had the feeling that there was a lot more to it than meekness and I was right this time.  I discovered that humility means putting others first and esteeming them better than myself, this is just a starter, there is so much more and it is so very interesting I must share it.

Do you always put others first?  And do you esteem others better than yourself?  What kind of questions are these you might ask?  Well, for one I don't know if I have ever known anyone that put everyone else before themselves and I don't know if I have ever known anyone who esteemed others better than themselves, but when you think of it, it is humbling to do that and it certainly doesn't hurt us, in fact it really lifts us up above our prideful level.

I don't want to overwhelm you so I won't go any further with this subject than to say it is enough to work on today and to think about today.  I want to be humbly yours to all with whom I come in contact with.  I believe God impressed me to study this out for a reason and we will see what the reason was as I delve deeper into the subject of humility.  Actually, I believe that these two items, esteeming others better than myself and putting others first is enough for one day to contemplate.

So have a great day working on putting others first and esteeming them better  than yourself and we will work on it together and see if we can't make our little world a better place to live.  Grandma Joan