Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
This passage is found in an interesting section of Scripture. Right before this, there is a charge to the elders in the church—those are the overseers of what's happening in the Christian community, who are charged with the task of shepherding and caring for the flock. The conversation continues to those who are a part of this community, that are being led by these faithful servants in Christ. I love that there's an intersection here, because the verse we just shared together represents something that's beneficial to both parties. You have the people who are in charge of administrating the ideas and the thoughts about who God is amongst the folks in the church, and then you have the folks who are trying to be faithful in their following of the way of Jesus as they continue to try to live for His glory. Yet the message is the same for both.
Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor. In other words, it's not about your effort to try to make people see who you are in your spirituality. It's not about you and your own ability to prove or show who you are in God. In other words, we need to fight to find ways to make ourselves less so that He would truly receive the glory and the honor. When He receives the glory, He's the one that's responsible for honoring you.
A Counterintuitive Way to Live
Now, I know that's sort of a counterintuitive idea in our culture, because so much of who we are in our identity, our value, our worth to the world is based upon what we make, what we do, and what we produce. So much of our angst, our striving, and the way we live is centered on the question of, who can I be? How can I show up to the world, and who will people see me as?
This instruction in Scripture is really interesting. Instead of fighting to find ways to make yourself known, you're fighting to find ways to make yourself less. There's a verse in the book of John, in chapter 3, verse 30. It says, "He must increase, I must decrease." The He that must increase is God, His name, His glory, His power—that should be made big. The decrease—the I in the equation—needs to become small or become less.
How to Humble Yourself
It's interesting, because if you're wondering, how can you become humble? Or how can you, as the verse we read today says, humble yourself? Well, you can be humble in a couple of different ways. The first one that I think of is in your posture, in your actions, and in your attitude—not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to, but to have a proper perspective of who you are relative to God and to try to operate in a way that reflects that truth.
The easiest way to make yourself small is to make Him bigger. The bigger His name, the bigger His glory, the bigger His power from your lips, the smaller you become relative to it. As you go into your day, I want you to think about what it means to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and trust that as you give Him glory and honor, He will honor you in return.
