Matthew 23:13 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
It is hard to speak on humbleness. All of us are born into a world where we must preserve our selves, not only our physical self but also our dreams and ambitions.
From the moment we are born, there seems to be trials and dangers around every corner, physical dangers that want to take our life and our health but there is also a system in place that wishes to conform us to its image.
It is against the interest of the flesh to be humble.
The definition of humbleness is: "having or showing a modest or low estimate of one's own importance." A second definition is: "of low social, administrative, or political rank."
Again, humbleness to someone who is living by the flesh would be a death sentence! We all want to be important, we all want social standing and high rank.
Yet Jesus says in Luke 17:33 "If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it."
God wants you to be humbled, yes, but that He can lift you up.
It is not His will that you walk around with your head hanging low, feeling unimportant, having no power in this world
He wants to see you soar on wings like an eagle, He wants to lift you up and set you in a high place as His son, He wants you to bring the kingdom of Heaven into this world.
Humbling yourself is hard
But how much harder is it to strive against a living God?
Proverbs 3:34 says “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
Jesus confirms this when He says "those who exalt themselves WILL be humbled."
The problem is that: the flesh is blind.
If only you could see God! If only you could see the person He is, the love that He has for His children! If only you could see His plan and His purpose for your life and the GLORY that He want's to bring you into to!
But the flesh can not.
The flesh can only see worldly things: money, earthly power, social status...
The flesh is temporary and it strives after temporary things.
This world, with all of its wealth, all of its power, all of its status, it is a shadow and it is fleeting.
There is coming a day when all of it will be burnt up by the source of light that makes it visible in the first place.
That light is like the sun rising in the morning, growing brighter and brighter until a moment when it completely overtakes the darkness of night.
In the noontime, when the sun is at its highest point, there is no trace of darkness.
How pointless it is to try and grasp at a piece of that darkness... to claim a bit of it and try and hold it in your hand... to base your importance on it and strive after it and devote your life to it..
Is it not better to put your hope and devotion in the light that is surely coming? a light that does not fade away, that can not be overtaken? An eternal light!
If your identity is in this world, you will be humbled. You will fade with the darkness and all of your striving and straining will disappear in an instant when the sun breaks the horizon.
But if your identity is in the sun, though you may appear low for a moment, though the darkness may boast in its appointed time, you know that noonday is coming.
1 Corinthians 2:8-11 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except for their own spirit within them? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Pray like this:
Lord, awaken your Spirit in me. Open my eyes to the truth that you set before the foundation of this earth. Show me the temporary nature of this world and reveal to me the light sitting just behind the horizon. Let it shine on me now, let it be what guides me during the night. Help me to humble myself now that I may be lifted up. Help me to stand next to you in the night so that I can stand with you in the brightness of noonday. My flesh is weak and it wants temporary things but I know you have put your Spirit in me, the same Spirit that raised Christ into new life. Do the same in me, Lord. Buried with Christ and raised to new life that will never end.