GodSprings - February 23, 2016

Will I Rise If I Fall?

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)

F.B. Meyer in his book The Secret of Guidance says, “I used to think that God’s gifts were on shelves one above the other; and that the taller we grew in Christian character the easier we should reach them. I now find that God’s gifts are on shelves one beneath the other; and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower; and that we have to go down, always down, to get His best gifts.”

Humility is a great Christian quality, but is often greatly misunderstood, being hard to define and even harder to cultivate. Humility simply means to be brought low or to have a sense of lowliness, not thinking too highly of yourself, but not putting yourself down. Where pride exalts self, humility exalts Christ; where pride is full of self, humility is emptied of self. So, how can we humble ourselves while living in such a proud world?

Solomon had just completed building the temple in Jerusalem. As part of the temple dedication, people gathered there as Solomon praised God for His faithfulness and declared to the people that people could come there and meet with God through prayer. After an enormous sacrifice and spectacular display of God’s power and glory, the Lord appeared to Solomon and gave him a promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14. At the center of the promise is humility.

Humility begins by being His. God said, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves...”. Humility admits, “I don’t have all the answers,” “I can’t do it all on my own,” and more times than we admit, humility also says, “I need help.” Apart from God, we cannot achieve true humility because humility is directly tied to a right relationship with God.

When a man asked George Mueller the secret of his service, Mueller responded: “There was a day when I died, utterly died; died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends; and since then I have studied to show myself approved only to God.” 

Rising up to eternity is possible only if I am ready to die to my own self and consider His worth in all doing. The door of life is a door of mystery. It becomes slightly shorter than the one who wishes to enter it. And thus only he who bows in humility can cross its threshold.