The freedom of humility and meekness

It’s been ten months since I posted ‘Looking back on September 8, 2023’, when I remembered my Margie, and her purposing in her heart to pray without ceasing, giving thanks in ALL circumstance.

The more I’ve purposed to put into practice ‘giving thanks in ALL circumstances’, the more my lack of gratitude and my presumptuous sense of entitlement is exposed.

It’s been over two years since I posted ‘When failure is a good fruit – breaking up fallow ground (part I)’, when I suspect my prayer partner, Elizabeth, and I began to take praying for growth in humility to the next level.

The more ‘fallow ground’ that is broken up in my heart, the more pride and the infinite variety of its sneaky forms is brought to the surface.

One of the sneakiest forms of pride and arrogance is demonstrated in lack of gratitude, forgetting or refusing to give God the credit of all the ‘good’ things, and yet raging against God when I or my loved ones don’t get all the ‘good’ things I think they deserve and are entitled to.

Giving thanks requires humility and meekness.

Humility and meekness lead to freedom from an over-emphasis on personal responsibility and striving to do and be ‘enough’, which leads to a sense of rest, peace, quiet calmness.

This leads to being still and silent that we may tune our ears to hear the small still whisper of our Father saying, ‘This is the way. Walk in it.’ Our Father who knows what we need, when and where we need it, and is abundantly generous in giving good gifts to His children.

This leads to looking away from the mess, confusion, chaos within and without, that we may focus our vision to see His loving, sovereign hand over all things, and His knowledge and wisdom to respond rightly to the seeming chaos.

This leads to tuning our hearts, our affections to the LORD alone, that we may not only fear Him, but desire deeply to know Him personally, and grow in our love for Him and our enjoyment of Him.

And here we come to the end goal, to the meaning of life, to our reason for living – honoring, praising, and glorifying the LORD with cheerful hearts.

When I view myself rightly, as nothing, as weak, as foolish, I am free from my pride of trying to figure it out, trying to know, to understand, to make sense of things, and therefore, I am free from trying to ‘fix’ it all, control, manipulate, and exercise power over that and those which are not under my control.

When I view God rightly, as everything, as all powerful, all wise, I am drawn to Him in awe, fear, and love. I am drawn away from myself, and I taste and see what Jesus meant when He said,

'My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.' (John 4:34)

'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord,

but only what He sees the Father doing.

For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. ...

I can do nothing on My own.

As I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just, because

I seek not My own will but

the will of Him who sent Me.' (John 5:19, 30)

If this was true for Jesus' earthly life in the flesh, how much more true is it of me?!

If Jesus makes these statements about Himself, how much more shall I take it to heart when He tells me,

'Abide in Me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine,

neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit,

for apart from Me you can do nothing. ...

By this My Father is glorified,

that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples. ...

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing;

but I have called you friends,

for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

You did not choose Me,

but I chose you and appointed you

that you should go and bear fruit

and that your fruit should abide...' (John 15:4-5, 8-9, 15-16).

My food, my sustenance for life, is to do God's will, even when it makes no sense to me, and it feels so wrong. To attempt to do my will, is vanity, fruitless labor, eating the bread of anxious toil.

This is why before I can follow Jesus, I must take up my cross; but before I take up my cross I must first deny myself.

I must first deny myself, recognizing and submitting to the truth that I am nothing and I bring nothing to table. 

I must first deny myself, my ways, my thoughts, my understanding, my expectations, my desires, my sense of right and wrong and justice, my will.

I must humble myself just as Jesus humbled Himself, made Himself nothing, emptied Himself, and took the form of a servant. (Philippians 2:6-8)

Once I have humbled myself, I can take up my cross, my unique-to-me means of earthly shame and suffering, from my Father's own hand, and only then can I truly follow Jesus of the Scriptures.

This is the Father’s pattern that He set before the Son, and is now setting before His followers: deny/humble yourself and take up your cross/bear earthly shame and suffering. (Luke 9:23-24)

Denying myself humbles me, bows me low, and puts me in the proper position to take up MY cross. 

Only from this position can I hear His voice, see His hand, and desire His will in order to truly discern it from my own, false teachers’, the world’s, and the devil’s.

Only from this position can I think rightly in order to count the cost, to leave family, to sell all that I have, to lose my life, and to offer up my whole being, mind, body, and soul as a living sacrifice. (Luke 14:28-30; Matthew 19:29, 10:34-37; Matthew 13:44-46; Matthew 10:39; Romans 12:1)

I must learn to begin from this position always. It is the ‘ready position’.

If anyone thinks he stands, take heed, lest he fall. (I Corinthians 10:12)

I must learn to take heed by continually getting back into the starting position, especially after spiritual victories.

Over and over again the LORD commands us to be ready, be awake, watchful, aware, alert.

My flesh calls me to stand up tall, bow up, assert myself physically and verbally, but Jesus calls me to something different.

Jesus calls me to bow down in humble lowliness, be still and remain silent, eagerly waiting for His next command.

The ‘ready position’ is the only proper position for waiting on the LORD, trusting in the LORD, hoping in the LORD.

Jesus modeled this 'ready position' perfectly throughout His earthly life for His followers to notice, adore, and follow.

Blessed be our Lord and Savior!