The Choice to be Humble
God’s Quiet Voice Part 3: The Choice to be Humble
Psalm 25:9
“He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.”
There are four choices required to make progress on the path to intimacy with God. All of them require that we have a correct idea of God’s character. The choices we make are:
Will I listen to God’s instruction?
Will I humble myself before God?
Will I recognize my guilt before God and seek repentance?
Will I fear the Lord, recognizing who he really is?
In the last devotional of this series, we showed how God is a willing and eager instructor for everyone, no matter how far away from God they are. But to make progress, we need to be willing to hear the instruction. The Old Testament view of hearing also included action. To hear was to put into practice.
When I was in my teens, I worked in a sporting goods store. Since I had a substantial employee discount, I would often spend much of what I earned there. One day I saw a pair of super stiff rock-climbing boots at a price I could afford, and I was all in. They fit beautifully, but were a bit awkward to walk. I loved them. So, when I had the opportunity to hike with friends in British Columbia, of course, I proudly wore the boots. As it turned out, the boots had super traction on everything except ice and moss. Filled with overconfidence, I boldly approached a cliff overlooking a stream.
One of my fellow hikers called for me to be careful of the moss, but I didn’t understand why until I found myself sitting on the edge of the cliff staring down at about a 60-foot drop and thinking, “I wonder how I can stick this landing?” By God’s grace, the jeans I wore stuck to the moss, and my friend pulled me to safety. Staring down that cliff was an early but memorable lesson on the importance of humility in the face of truth—in this case, the physical reality of my place on a cliff with the ground 60 feet below! But there are other, different kinds of truth in our lives as well.
In the instance above, I could’ve listened to my friend and avoided the danger, but pride kept me from hearing the truth. This, I think, is the key choice we make in regard to truth. Will we submit to the truth and live by it, or will we seek to make our own truth and go our own way? Submitting to truth is an act of humility. Arrogance seeks to show how our own way is better. Here is how Paul described this in Romans 1:18-19:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.”
And so, we arrive back at Psalm 25:8-9. Verse 8 says that God is teaching sinners. The next step comes in verse 9, which shows the importance of humility. Humility is the second and critical step in a progression toward knowing God in an intimate way as David did. The arrogant assumption is that we already know the truth. But the reality is very different. The choice is whether or not we will listen and hear truth from God.
None of us is born humble. Due to original sin, we are born entirely self-focused, entirely arrogant. When we were children, physical reality trained us, as did our caregivers. As we mature, we might learn truth about health, relationships, the importance of work done well, finances, and about God and the spiritual realm. In all these areas, God’s truth exists and can be found in Scripture. We find out in time that we can either learn from others, such as Solomon and his Proverbs, or make our own mistakes. When we learn from others, it can be much less painful. But to learn truth, we need to actively submit to an almighty God. He does not force us to submit. He waits for us to do so.
While God is waiting on us, the natural consequences of our lack of submission, our sin, bear a harvest of fruit—but not healthy fruit. We may sense that we are in a mess, but our pride holds us captive. Humility is a choice. Have we made that choice? One of the leaders in our church’s recovery group says this of folks resistant to change: “They are just not pitiful enough to turn to God.” Wow! That is not an attitude of humility. May we not be like that. But instead, let us have a soft heart that is open toward the God who deeply loves us and is already teaching us His ways.