Being Humble Before God
I always thought that being prideful was an overt expression of self-centeredness, arrogance and loud boasting about your own achievements. Yet God showed me that pride can also be found in silence, through deep-rooted stubbornness, self-reliance and unwillingness to ask for help.
In Jeremiah 18:1-6, there is a story of the Potter and the Clay. The potter noticed the clay was marred and instead of discarding it, he chose to take the time to reshape it as seemed best to him.
“Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”
This reveals God’s restorative heart for His creation in which He lovingly shapes us to be more like Him, even if it requires us to be refined by fire. Sometimes we are being crushed in order to be built back up into the person God wants us to be. Praise God that even in my sin and brokenness, God remains near and lovingly picks up the pieces and makes me whole.
This passage convicted me of my own pride and left me with various questions to reflect on: “Am I being flexible and adaptable to be molded and shaped by God? Or am I rigid and stubborn in my own ways that the only way for me to be changed is to be broken and shattered?” God has been gracious to do both in my life. He has humbled me through various challenging circumstances, reminding me that He is in control and I am not. God is Sovereign, with supreme authority and providence over all of creation. How amazing it is that the creator of the universe chooses to love us and invites us to have a personal relationship with Him?
Working at TCM has been an incredibly humbling experience in which God continues to reveal my pride. Over the past four years, God has been changing my heart posture to one of surrender. God is teaching me to let go rather than to hold tightly, to give humbly and receive with joy and gratitude. I am slowly learning what it means to live a life that is fully surrendered to God. May we continue to come humbly to the foot of the cross, the place of salvation, forgiveness and a reminder of Christ’s example of humility.
Is there anything stopping you from coming humbly before God?
How can you surrender to God today?
“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”