Pastor Stephen Dedman

Tag: humility

Allow God To Lift You Up

Encouragement, Faith

‘For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’
Luke 14:11

Take every opportunity to promote yourself before and above others. Seize occasions for recognition and manipulate your way into the center of attention. According to the world, this is the proper way to attain high esteem.

But according to God’s design, you must put others first. Humble yourself. It’s when God sees your humility that He will exalt you.

If we put our efforts into promoting ourselves, we will be brought down and humiliated. Jesus spoke of a man who tried to enhance his own image (Luke 14:7-11). While attending a dinner, he quickly claimed the seat of most honor. When the host saw this take place, he humiliated the man by asking him to move to another seat, the lowest seat in the room.

Jesus said the wise thing to do is seek the lowest position and allow someone else to exalt you when they feel that you need to be recognized.

When we strive to remain humble, we bring glory to God and not ourselves. If we honor God, He will honor us. When the world exalts you, you are the center of attention. But when God exalts you, others will praise Him for what He has done in your life.

Allow God to be the One who honors you in the way that pleases Him!

Pray

Lord, please keep me humble. I ask You to remove all pride from my heart. May Your Holy Spirit transform me and change me.

He Who Humbles Himself

Encouragement, Faith

He Who Humbles Himself

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
‭‭Luke‬ ‭14:11‬

A Lesson of Humility

In Luke 14:1-6 Jesus was invited to a prestigious dinner with the religious leaders. He was the honored guest but only for evil intentions. There was also another man invited that day who had dropsy (known as edema). The lawyers and Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus into breaking a law on the Sabbath but their plan backfired. Jesus asked them if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath but they remained silent. Jesus then healed the man and sent him away. The lawyers and Pharisees were speechless.

The miracle of healing should have been enough to demonstrate that Jesus was God but Jesus wanted to teach them a valuable lesson concerning the Kingdom of God. He used His position of honor to honor God.  The Pharisees used their position of honor to elevate themselves.  Every person who was honored would then honor someone else, as this was their custom.  It was all about being recognized.

Jesus used this opportunity to share another parable. He said, “Instead of placing yourself at the end of the table where the most distinguished guest should sit, move further down the table.  In doing so you will save yourself from shame when the host comes to you and asks you to move because that seat was reserved.  Sit further away and let the host move you to the position of honor.  Then you will be honored by all.”

God does not look lightly upon prideful people. James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Every Christian needs to learn the important principle of humility.  Let’s learn from the Master and use our God given positions to praise Him and not ourselves.

Prayer

Ask the Lord to make you more aware of your sin and position yourself at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ.