Humbled Daily.

Discussing our humbling, or lack thereof.

Jesus said--

Mat_18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

We are told--

Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up

Humble… yourself in the SIGHT of the LORD.

Less of ourselves. How? We are, what we are and to change ourselves seems almost impossible. Our only focus can be self in all situations even in the most selfless of situations we can only be the person we are.  Have you ever been so caught up in something you forgot about your own needs?  I think most of us can say we have. But more often than not we are NOT caught up in a lot of 'something else' to the inclusion of our self needs. While we work endlessly our thoughts stray to that time clock. If we are working in something we love (which not many get to do) we are wishing for that time clock to slow down. Our thoughts are for the future- our future and it's a constant thought.  'I have to do this when I'm done with that. Tomorrow I have this to do. What's my schedule look like for the next week. Oh dear, holidays are nearing I have to make some plans. In the morning I have to do this, then that, and go here and do this. When I'm done I have to stop here, get that, do this and then after that I have to do some more. What will I watch on tv? What will I eat? Do I really want that to drink? I have to choose what to wear. I have so much to do I'm not sure I'll have enough time to do it all. My schedule is full. Even when I plan my down time and I'm relaxing that is what I want to do and I do not want to be interrupted- I'm busy doing what I want even if it's absolutely nothing. 

Do any of the above sound familiar to you?  How do we get away from all that? I'm not sure we do. However, we can CHOOSE to humble ourselves first before we do any and all of those things, can't we? Is it within our power to humble ourselves before we take over ourselves- so to speak- making plans?  

We do not get a daily, hourly, minutely itinerary from God. He doesn't email us or text our phones to tell us what's on the schedule.

We do have some instructions about our schedule from God though, and it's a weekly instruction. Once a week on the seventh day of the week we are to worship the Lord our God, setting aside ourselves as much as we possibly can- especially if we can't seem to do it throughout the rest of the week.  A true humbling if we truly honor the Sabbath- and it's not sitting in a room secluded from everyone. Honoring the Sabbath is doing God's will as fully and purposefully as we possibly can.  Honoring the Sabbath is HUMBLING ourselves in a very special way. We put ourselves as LAST as we possibly can on the Sabbath, purposefully! We seek out God and helping others in whatever we choose to do. We pray, we study, we gather together, we HUMBLE ourselves to God's will!

The rest of the week we aren't supposed to seek NOT to be humble. Humbling ourselves is an ongoing full time experience, a choice.  We need to ask ourselves if we are being selfish, if we are being arrogant, if we are being prideful and we need to do this in all we do.

Too often we think of others interfering in our plans as something awful, a hardship on us, an imposition. We have to check our schedules, we have to see if we can fit it in, we have to weigh all the facts- do we really need that nap more than helping out a friend? Does our body ache a bit too much to help?

If you are one of those people who drop everything in a moment's notice and hurry to aid another no matter the reason, GOD BLESS YOU!  Or maybe you drop everything but at the same time you're a tiny bit resentful of having to do so. Or maybe you love the self-back-patting you can give yourself for being a good person. Hopefully you are doing it very sincerely, and God's guiding you, His Spirit working with you and your spirit, this is our desire- isn't it?!  Praise God if YOU' VE attained this!

Self is us, and truly we NEED to HUMBLE OURSELVES!

We need to keep all our scheduled plans, but before EACH and every plan I think we need to pray.

We need to pray - God, may YOUR will be done before I start my day, before I go to work, while I'm at work, when I go to the store, when I pick up the kids from school, when I go see a friend, as I'm eating. Not our will God!  While we may be doing things that we choose to do, uncertain if we are following Your plans, let Your will be done. Guide us, help us, teach us, show us, and forgive us! Please forgive us! Humble us Lord, teach us to humble ourselves as You desire we do! We need You, Lord! We believe, help our unbelief!!! 

We can't read this, listen to this and then go away and forget it all. We can't think this is okay advice and then turn around and NOT seek humbling! We can't, we just…can't! Please. We would be humbled.

May God help us, please, please us always. 

More tomorrow by the grace and WILL of God!

In HIS LOVE ALWAYS!

In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ our LORD!

Now.

And forever!