Me, Me, and OH YEAH - ME! - August 17th weekly devotion

Thank you for joining us for this week's devotion. It is my prayer that God will speak to you thru my writing and most importantly thru His Word. May His Word challenge and change us today!

IN A STORY I read about King Solomon, it is told of how Solomon took a tiny ant into his hand and asked, "Is there anyone in the world greater than I?"

"Yes", replied the ant, "I am, since God sent you to carry me."

Pride is a vice that we all share, and yet we dislike pride when we see it in someone else. Humility, on the other hand, is admired by all, though misunderstood.

In last week's YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL, I polled readers the following question, "What would benefit you from having humility?" The top answers were:

50% of those polled said that they would have a smoother life with God's blessings and the goodwill of others. Tied with the same amount of votes, voters said they also would be able to help some people that they cared about if they thought of themselves less.

30% of readers voted and said that with increased humility, they would make more friends and have deeper relationships.

If there is one area in our lives where we need change, it is in the area of humility. Some people's idea of humility is to feel negative about themselves.."I probably won't do well at this, but I'll try."

THIS IS NOT HUMILITY. Another false idea of humility is feigned modesty, for instance a person who is skilled musically but denys that they have any talent.

REAL HUMILITY is putting others before yourself and regarding yourself as less important than others.

WHEN I THINK OF HUMILITY, I THINK OF 2 PEOPLE

The first is a man who would give the shirt off of his back to a stranger. He would sacrifice everything he owned for someone who lacked. I have personally seen him walk into McDonalds with $3.00 in his pocket, order a kids meal and a coffee and turn around and give the meal to a homeless person standing outside and walk away drinking his coffee. This man, I recall, several years ago, worked with a woman whose husband had had a heartattack. She had exhausted all of her personal days and vacation days at work. Any time she needed to be off would now be unpaid. This man gave all of his unused vacation days to this woman he personally did not know.

Sacrifice. Humility is putting others before yourself, sacrificially.

This first man I speak of is one of the most humble men I have ever met, and I pray I could be more like him. I have been married to him for the past 27 years, and he is my hero!

Another hero of mine, who is the perfect example of humility, is Jesus Christ. Perfect humility is pictured in Jesus coming as a helpless infant and dying for our sin. Paul discusses the humility that he would like to see the followers of Jesus to adopt in Philippians chapter 2.

PHILIPPIANS 2:3-5

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself: (4) do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interest of others. (5) Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus."

PAUL CALLS HUMILITY AN ATTITUDE OF THE MIND

Another word for pride is PRESUMPTION. Solomon paints a perfect picture of presumption and its results in Proverbs.

PROVERBS 25:6,7

"Do not claim honor in the presence of the king, and do not stand in the place of great men; (7) for it is better that it be said to you, 'come up here' than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom your eyes have seen."

PRESUMPTION is assuming a higher place than you should. Presumption is asking for trouble.

Pride leads to a fall. If you walk on a high path, you may fall and be hurt.

However, the one who walks on a low road has less distance to fall.

In some ways, humility is the hardest trait to have, and in some ways, it is the easiest. Self-importance is a condition of our sinful nature. A me-first (me, me and OH YEAH - me!) attitude is NATURAL, but an others-first attitude is SPIRITUAL!

Humility is not as hard to obtain as people think. It is not deciding that you are no good at anything; in fact, it is not about you at all!! Humility is the habit and attitude of thinking about others and about caring for people's needs MORE than people's status. Humility is simply learning to take delight in others.

"The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor and life." PROV. 22:4

God is humble. He delights in others, even though He has the right to think only of Himself.

God REWARDS humilty...the rewards may not be financial. Money is just temporary, but the reward of His grace, love and peace will be eternal.

WHAT ARE SOME WAYS THAT YOU CAN PUT OTHERS FIRST THIS WEEK?

NEED MORE HUMLITY?

try this....

1. ASK God to help you to put others first

2.CHOOSE an event where you will determine to

not talk about yourself but find out about other people

3. WRITE out a list of anyone you may need to apologize to for not being the friend/spouse/relative that you should of been when it came to "serving" them

I have been studying the book of PROVERBS, for additional help with this area of humility, meditate and memorize Prov. 18:12. Thanks for joining me today for this study.

YOUR OPINION MATTERS....

Please vote in this weeks poll, "WHAT ACTS OF KINDNESS ARE HARD FOR YOU?" The poll is located on the side column of this blog. Your opinion really matters and come back next sunday for the results!!