SCRIPTURE:
"You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
1 Peter 5:5
OBSERVATION:
All I can think of is the tortoise and the hare. Tortoise wins the race cause the hare was too proud. The hare lost because he thought he was all that, smart enough, fast enough, fill in the blank enough.
I don’t think I’m prideful, but, I don’t think I’m that humble either. While I don’t go around boasting about my few successes, I do strive and push to ensure future success. Is that prideful? Am I making the mistake of not being subject to my elders, to authority? The mistake that results in God’s opposition?
APPLICATION:
But let me flip it up. Instead of working on my pride, I’m better off working on my humility. I need to see things into a higher state and focus on the goal rather than the failure. Humility is the goal = look up, pride is the failure = look around.
While I claim and commit to do my absolute best absolutely all of the time in honor of the God who has given me His absolute best, my heart is fragile enough to be deceived into believing that it’s all me. That success is through my effort and commitment rather than God’s presence and commitment to me. That my hard work did this rather than God’s handiwork. That my sweat accomplished the victory rather than His sacrifice. Yes, my heart and mind can wander quickly into pride.
But God desires my humility. He requires me to submit, to subject and to sacrifice. I ain’t too proud to be humble.
As I see myself in the intersection of the Moses and Joshua narrative, I get the opportunity to both seek and share wisdom. But, and this is a large but, I need to set my mind and heart solely on the fact that I have a lot more to learn, a lot more to receive from the giants on who’s shoulders I stand. I have a lot more “subjecting to your elders” to do. What little I know and have to share with the generation behind me is just a revamped paraphrase of what I’ve been told and given example of. That thought alone is humbling. If I set my heart on and clothe myself in humility, a humility that honors Him first and above all, pride falls away and grace abounds.
PRAYER:
Thank You Jesus for Your grace. I humble my heart, mind and soul before You. I pray for obedience to follow through on my commitment to clothe myself with humility and genuinely offer grace as You have unconditionally give grace to me. Amen
