For the past several months, I have been asking God to teach me more about humility. In addition to humbling me, which he does without my asking, he is actually teaching me what it looks like lived out. Here is what i’m finding….
When we live out Acts 1:8 and The Great Commission, God will be glorified. Why them, do we think it necessary to shout to the world via tweets, blogs, social network status’, etc that God just did something cool in your life? He is God, and those things are happening all over the place everyday….without you and me. He certainly doesn’t need to be bragged on, nor does he need to be called cool…lately, I almost find that offensive. Its one thing to tell somebody what God is doing in your life…that is giving testimony, and we are commanded to do that. In my opinion, that is all we are to do…I know a lot of missionaries serving overseas right now with countless stories of what they see God doing all around them. How do I know God is moving in their places of service? Because they advertise it? No. Because I know God and I know He moves…and I know the character of these men and women and I know that because of the godly character they portray, God is using them and as He uses them they are changing to be more like Him…and THAT’S what will win the world!
We are a very excitable culture. We see a homeless man begging for food and we have just come from Chili’s with half of our meal in a styrophone container in the backseat….we come up to the stoplight and roll down the window, hand him the food, and all of the sudden we start feeling real good….we give it a title, “love in action” or whatever the cool thing is to say at the moment….we post what we did on line, we talk about it with our friends, and we hide behind phrases like” God is so awesome”, etc… Yes. He is….and we are not. And when we are living as we should be, these things will be happening on a daily basis, and He will begin transforming YOU to be more Christ-like. This will be evident without you ever having to tell a soul…or at least if its done in humility, it should be. He doesn’t need acolades, he needs prayer and praise to be done privately, or in a setting with like-minded believers.
Do we really think were going to win the world by “bragging on God”? Is it really God were bragging on, or are we just tooting our own horn? Keep in mind, all the world wants to see is us changed and consistent with the life we say we lead. They want our testimony as to what has happened to us personally….funny I don’t see anything on the internet saying “I once was a drug addicted junkie, but now Jesus had changed my life”….or…. “I still fall into temptation over (you fill in the blank) but God remains faithful to deliver me”…. THIS is what changes lives. THIS is what the lost need to hear.
God doesn’t need to be bragged on….He needs your transparency. And to me, this is real humility.
This is by no way pointed at any particular person or group, I have done the very thing I am talking about several times, but as I said in the beginning…I have been asking God to show me what real humility looks like, and this is what I am seeing. Thanks for reading…sorry if I stepped on toes (or egos)…guess I should be used to that by now.
You are so right, Tammi! Thanks for the insightful blog. We need to be reminded of this and you just did that for me.
Thanks Tammi. This is so good. Your message
is right on target. I agree with everything you
wrote. I also know that I could use a good dose of humility. It’s a painful and hard lesson to
learn…best not ask God for it unless we really
want to know.
I deleted the rest of what I wrote because it
sounded so harsh. Seldom repond to blogs
but couldn’t pass this one up.
With the Bible psalmists, we should indeed boast. “In God we make our boast all day long!”As believers we do need to check and make sure we are boasting in Him and not ourselves.
I see what you’re saying that transformation should be evident without having to say a word, but I think on social networks where friends are not face to face or even voice to voice and cannot see the changes, it is a good thing when updates point to Him and His work in our lives.
I want to start by saying that I agree that God does not need us to brag on Him, and what you wrote here is really good stuff. Our praises do not lift Him to any higher of a position that He already possesses. However, I do believe that our daily occurances and experiences with God have some merit, especially for encouragement. While they may not speak straight into the heart of the lost (though, that is the Holy Spirit’s job anyway) they can often speak to the heart of the lazy Christian. I, too, often find some things posted about God in 140 characters or less a bit offensive, but do I want to slam someone for their zeal, even if misplaced? Nah. Sometimes that just comes from a youthful passion, and sometimes not and in those occasions maybe it would be my place to speak, but only if I am directly involved in that persons life, I think. I hope that every opportunity that I take to listen to God and lean on Him and learn from Him is a also a chance for me to be transparent. I want my life to be an open book. I want people to see my struggles, so they can see how I have nothing to do with what God is doing in my life. I think that is part of learning humility. I am so thankful for your openess and honesty in this blog. I hope you can see that I am agreeing with you.
Andrea! This is awesome, and I am very encouraged by what you have said…You have been a wonderful example of what it means to be transparent, and I want you to know, it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Sometimes, I fear that my boldness and “tough love” demeanor will come off as slamming another, though that is never my intention….to be totally honest, its when I look back at all those times when I felt another person speak truth that was hard to hear, or I simply just didn’t want to hear, that I experienced real growth…AFTER I got over my feelings being hurt and saw it for what it was. Youthful zeal is a beautiful thing, but with the generation that is currently rising, I just hate seeing them settle for youthful zeal…thats just the thing…I don’t want them to settle..I want them to NOT be satisfied and call something radical when it really is called living in Christ…there are healings to be had, revival to take place, multitudes to lead to Him, and miracles we have yet to see….and sharing Jesus through transparency is the way Jesus said to do it. I know we can both agree that we don’t want to disciple a group of zealous twenty somethings that have the potential to be TRULY radical….whatever that looks like
Thanks, again! I appreciate you!
And Leah…for some reason, it won’t let me reply to you directly, so I will piggyback off Andrea…why do you have to live so far away??? I would love to have you near so we could have deep discussions such as this…makes me wish I would have taken more advantage of the time we did have when we lived so close…thanks for your thoughts….Love you Filipino Sistah!!