One of the down sides of having a blog is that there can be all this pressure to write new blog posts on a regular basis. I have friends that have started blogs only to leave them desolate for months and even years at a time. Then there will be period of "conviction and repentance" when they commit to give their all to blogging again, a commitment that they only honor for a short time before they fall off the blogging map of the world once again.
I enjoy updating my blog and I try to do it at least a couple of times a week. The mass of hoarding fans that follow me demand no less :). Yet there are times when, if I've gone more than my usual amount of time between posts, I feel that same pressure to put something on here that is both witty and challenging. This is one of those times where I didn't necessarily think I had a specific thing that I wanted to write about, yet I did have a strong desire to write. Then my personal study led me to write about something that I want to be so much nearer to my own heart.
Right now I am in the midst of studying the great passages of Jesus in the New Testament. Aren't all passages about Jesus? Technically yes, but there are a few passages that outline the divinity and glory of Jesus in a way that others don't, specifically John 1, Philippians 2, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1 & 2. This week I'm focusing on Philippians 2:3-16 and I will share it with our students tomorrow night in youth. When I study this passage what grips me most is the humility of Jesus and His absolute obedience to the Father.
Jesus truly humbled Himself twice, first in taking on human flesh--thus accepting the constraints of human flesh (though at no time did Jesus ever surrender His divinity)--and then by willingly going to the cross to die for our sins, accepting His role as the ultimate sacrifice, the King giving up His divine right for those of His subjects. That simply blows me away! We often see humility as a trait that is characterized by those who sit in the background with a contrite spirit and they never speak up or out of turn lest they be too loud. While these things may be part of what humility can look like, I prefer the definition that Andrew Murray outlines in his book Humility: Humility is the place of entire dependence on God.
The truly humble man is not the one who looks humble in his dress or sounds humble in his speech, but rather has humbled his entire will to that of God's will.
God is first in everything, not just most things.
His first and last request is to honor God so that His glory will be central.
He is not preoccupied with how others will see Him but rather he is fully occupied with God.
The truly humble man obeys not because he wants anything in return or because he feels he has to, but rather because it is his joy and honor to submit to God's will and direction.
Oh that we may know this humility in our lives!
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