Humility in Daily Life
Our Heavenly Father wants to use the situations and people in our lives to cultivate a spirit of humility in us. But often, we may resist His efforts or miss what He is doing entirely. Jeff Colon joins us to talk about this process and teaches us how to measure the humility in our lives by the standard set in God’s Word.
Mike: We want to continue our discussion on humility, and what I want to focus on in today's segment is humility in our daily life. What does it look like to have the humility of Christ in us in our daily lives?
Jeff: Well, First John 4:20 tells us that if someone says they love God, but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar. If we do not love people, how can we love God whom we have not seen? I've learned in my own life that I cannot trust my assessment of myself in any capacity, unless I assess myself with the Word of God as the standard. First John 4:20 is one verse that would help anybody come to see the level of humility they are actually walking in. Are they exuding the love of God through their lives, their actions, their words or their thoughts? Are they really walking in love towards their brothers and sisters?
Mike: Well Jeff, share a little bit about how that works out practically in our daily life.
Jeff: For me, it's in my unguarded moments when the true me comes out. If I could follow someone around all day and observe them in their unguarded moments, that's where I’d see what spirit is really ruling inside of them. I would encourage anybody, just try to be a little more aware of your actions, your thoughts and how you respond in situations where you may be unguarded. How do you respond? What comes out of you?
Mike: This is exactly what we saw Jesus doing with His disciples, correct?
Jeff: Well, yeah, He was with them all the time and unbeknownst to them, they were always exposing what was going on in their hearts. One example of them exposing what was in their hearts was when they were fighting over who was the greatest. That makes me think about where Paul talks about love in First Corinthians 13. He says in there, you can have faith, you can prophesy, you can have all knowledge, but without love, it profits nothing.
Paul goes down a list there in First Corinthians 13 that I've encouraged people with, especially in counseling to take that list and examine themselves and see if they are really living out those qualities. Love is patient, love is kind, and love keeps no record of wrongs. Is this really how we live our lives on a daily basis and in our interactions towards others? The Word of God gives us in many places a way to measure how we are walking regarding love and humility in our lives.
Mike: Yeah, it is a tremendous mirror. I think also one of the things that we try to communicate, especially to the men in our Residential Program, is that if we are ever really going to mature in our faith, we've really got to man up, look at ourselves in the mirror and come face to face with what we really see.
Jeff: Absolutely. And when you think about it, we are given many opportunities to do that in our daily lives. We experience temptations to be impatient, irritable, resentful or to speak harshly. People around us are always going to make mistakes or even sin against us, but that is going to test us and show us what is in our hearts.
Mike: Let's take some time now to look at some of the things that we see in a man or a woman who has begun to come into an understanding of what it means to walk in the humility of Christ.
Jeff: I know one thing that has helped me is learning the secret of humility: seeing people the way Jesus sees them. A humble man looks at every child of God, even the ones who seem the weakest or the most unworthy, and honors them as they would a king's son. I have had to do that many times in my own life, because I can still be a jerk sometimes. For example, when I look at Rose, my wife, I have to realize that she is God's daughter, and she is my sister in Christ. I need to honor her with that in mind and seek to love her the way Christ loves her.
Mike: One of the things that the Lord has been doing with Pure Life Ministries staff is increase our burden to reach out for souls to enter the Kingdom of God in these days that we are in. To do that, He's been speaking to us about needing to develop humility in our own lives. Talk a little bit about why humility is so important and how that impacts our ability to reach souls for the Kingdom of God.
Jeff: This is a personal issue for me as God has been stirring my heart and He's really doing wonderful things right here in our community amongst pastors. I'm excited about what He is doing. But too often what I've seen in the Church, even amongst Christians in the mission field, where people should be experiencing the joy of working as co-laborers in the Kingdom of God, is people becoming a hindrance and a burden to one another. And it is always because there is a lack of humility that really considers self as nothing, rejoices in being the least and just wants to be a blessing. I know that when we see more of that quality, unity is going to be there, and we are going to work together to be the body that Jesus describes us as where He is the head. We are the body, and we must work together to bring about His Kingdom. But love and humility is what brings the unity that is needed to do His work.
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Mike: My experience has been that because humility is so critical for the love of God to be able to flow through me, the difficult situations that the Lord allows into my life, and even the difficult people, are things that God is allowing in my life to develop humility in me. He wants humility to develop in me so that He can have His way in me and through me.
Jeff: Absolutely. And I would encourage anyone listening to go through your daily lives without shying away from difficult people. Embrace them and let God teach you how to go under, bear others and how to not avoid situations that will require you to enter into the same humility that Jesus did. Jesus never shied away from anyone, no matter how much of a difficult person they may have been. He was drawn to them. If you want to learn how to walk in the spirit of humility more in your daily life, embrace those moments. Don't run from them.
Mike: And we know it is not easy. Learning to walk in humility is a difficult thing, because it cuts so much against the grain of our selfishness and our flesh nature. But we can have hope in the process, because we know that our Father is good. He has a good heart, and He only desires good for us. The one who is developing humility in us is the humblest One of all.
Jeff: And what we do not realize is that we lose our joy when we refuse to humble ourselves. It is actually more of a misery not to walk in humility. When we are in humility and we are walking in love, we are one with Christ and that's where our true joy is found.
