Humility is not weakness; in fact, it takes a lot of emotional maturity and inner strength to be humble. On the other hand, it takes little or no effort at all to be prideful.
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Look at Moses- he was certainly a strong leader, yet he is also described as being the most humble of all men (Numbers 12:3), and I think we can agree that if we were to think of who was the most faithful of all people in the Bible, Moses would have to be right up there in the Top Ten.
But think of the most prideful person in the Bible and whichever name you come up with, I’ll betcha that person doesn’t show a humble bone in his (or her) body, do they?
So why is it that I say without humility you can’t be really faithful? It’s simple: pride is the antithesis of humility, and pride is the mother of all sins, so if someone is exceptionally prone to sinfulness, how can they be truly faithful?
Now, don’t go all the way to the moon with this: I am not saying someone who has pride can’t be faithful, but let’s see what God said (Jeremiah 9:23-24) about his thoughts on this:
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
Later…MUCH later… this same thought was stated by Shaul (Paul) in his letter to the Corinthians, which was that a man should only boast in the Lord; over the centuries this relationship has been known to holy men of God:
Pride and faith do not go together.
We generally feel proud of things we have accomplished, such as creating something beautiful or doing such a good job at work we receive a promotion, but doing well at what we are supposed to do is expected of us, isn’t it? Yeshua said that when we do what we are supposed to do, we don’t really deserve any special reward (Luke 17:10), and aren’t we told in Colossians 3:23 that we should do everything as if for the Lord, and not for men?
So, going forward, let’s each of us try to remember that to be truly faithful, we have to be humble, and that humility shouldn’t be a false one but come from the understanding that whatever we are able to do that is worthy of respect and admiration is because God gave us those gifts.
On our own, we aren’t worth diddly-squat; if not for the gifts God gave us when we were born, and the insight we receive through the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), which is also a gift from God, we would have nothing to brag about.
So when you are being complimented for saying or doing something remarkable, say what I say:
Whatever I do that is good is because it is God working through me;
when I screw up totally, then I can take full credit.
Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for this week, and I will be on vacation all next week, so until we meet again, l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!