A Humble Heart
Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life.
Proverbs 22:4
As we begin a new year, I think it’s important to take a look at our heart posture. If we are going to grow in Christ, we need to become more like Him; to take on His very nature. When I think of His nature, the first thing that comes to mind is humility. The God of the Universe stepped down from Heaven, subjected Himself to humanity, and took on the wages of sin and death, though He was perfect and innocent and holy.
The truth is, in our sinful nature, humility does not come naturally to any of us. In fact, quite the opposite. We prefer to praise and worship ourselves, instead of the One who created us. We have taken our selfish conceitedness so far that the idea of worshipping ourselves has been acceptable, even commercialized. The hair removal company “Nair”, has a tagline that states, “Worship Yourself.” How backwards is that? The modern, normalized idea that we should “worship ourselves” in order to become more “in tune” with who we are, is incredibly disheartening. I don’t know about you guys, but I am certainly not worthy of worship… like, ever! In fact, the more I focus on myself and how “great” I am, the more insecure and discouraged I become as a whole. I believe that is because the Lord calls us to seek higher things. When we get caught up in ourselves, we lose sight of our purpose on this earth, which is to praise, honor, serve, and worship our One True King.
So, how do we pull our minds and hearts off of ourselves and place them on the Lord? I wish I could give you a simple three-step plan, but truthfully, it’s not easy! However, even in the midst of this, we can have everlasting hope because of the reality of the Lord’s grace. Grace means that we can mess up an infinite amount and still experience the joyous benefits of a deep and abiding relationship with Christ. Hallelujah! Now that we understand that nothing we do will ever be perfect AND THAT IS OK, we can run with freedom in pursuit of putting Christ first!
Consider the words of John the Baptist. John 3:30 says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” This is a profound thought based in selflessness, not self-hatred. The idea of denying oneself for the raising up of Christ is not founded upon self-loathing. It cannot be. The Lord would never allow the root of His praise to come from us hating ourselves. No, instead we put Christ first because through doing so we learn how to love, value, honor, and respect ourselves on a significantly deeper level.
One practical way we can begin to focus on Christ above ourselves can be found in the way we pray. If we start all of our prayers focusing on ourselves, how is that putting Christ first? I find great joy and freedom by starting my prayers praising the Lord and thanking Him for all His marvelous gifts and imparted wisdom. Sometimes just praising Him is enough to pull me out of my self-focused slump.
What can you do today to shift your mindset on putting Christ first?
Praise first.