Humility is rarely something we enjoy, unless it is happening to someone else. Admit it, you love to see the arrogant character in a movie eat some “humble pie.” If you have a boss or co-worker who is always being disrespectful and rude, you get too much happiness out of the moments they are on the losing end of anything. Humility is too often linked to humiliation, and I think that is why we all fear it so much. We know that biblical humility is a good thing, but we are not lining up to receive it.
However, I want to challenge us all, myself included, to start thinking of humility as a joyful experience. Is there anything more humbling than knowing that there is nothing at all you could do to remove your sins and fix your relationship with God? As Americans, we live in a country that celebrates and aspires to build better things out of broken originals. When we fail, it is meant to catapult us to something bigger and greater. But this thought does not relate to our salvation. Our failures did not set us up for redemption, but for death! Paul writes in Romans that the wages of sin is death, and that is the payment we deserve for how we have lived our lives.
Thankfully, the verse does not end there. Paul’s entire thought was this: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The payment for the sinful work we have done in our life is death, but that is not the check we receive. Instead, Christ took our “check” of death, and gave us His glorious inheritance, which is eternal life with God our Father. This is a gift, not a reward. We do not deserve it, but God, in love gives it to us. This is so very humbling, but also joyfully good news. Let this humbling truth lead you to rejoice and feel the joy of His salvation gift!
This week, our Heritage students will be learning about humility. They will learn about it by looking at the stories of the Tower of Babel the early years of Abraham. Join us in this journey by reading through these stories in Genesis, and talk to your children about what it means to be loved by God purely because He chooses to love us. We here at Heritage are praying you and your family have a blessed week.
