In The Likeness Of Men: Pridefully Humble

Here is the devotional:

If you’ve spent any time on social media, you see all types of posts. Some that make you laugh, some that make your eyes roll and some that make you wonder how people get through life without killing themselves due to the craziness they post. But the one that stands out to me more than the rest is what I call the “Pridefully Humble.” This is the person that while he tries to give glory to God, just can’t help but put the focus on them. It looks a little something like this.

“Praise God for all He has done for me as He has helped me break the addiction I had to cigarettes. I’ve been smoking for over 20 years. But it’s only taken me two weeks to break the habit. I asked the nurse, and it’s the quickest she’s ever seen.

If I had to revise that post to help that person take the focus off of them and put it back on God, I would say they should have stopped after the second sentence. But we as humans, have a hard time taking ourselves out of the picture. Matthew 6:3 tells us, “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

You don’t see Jesus announcing from the street corner, “I’m going to the cross today. Look at me! I’m going to be beaten and whipped and pierced for your iniquities.” He didn’t tell people how many thorns there were, and you didn’t know how far he walked with the cross. The scripture said, “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

If you are going to humble yourself to God and serve Him, then do just that. Stop bragging about all the things you’ve done. I knew a person who handed out Gospel tracts for years. Sounds great, right? Every time I would see her, she just had to tell me how many he handed out. Over the years that number kept growing, and she kept telling people.

Until she ran into a missionary and told him how many she handed out. The missionary said, “500,000 is a lot”. Even then the competitive nature of this person couldn’t resist and she asked the missionary how many he had handed out. The missionary said, “I stopped counting at 5 million”. The person asked the missionary why he stopped counting. The missionary said, “I felt it was becoming more about me than about God.”

Christian, go to your cross and do it humbly.



Uncommen Questions

Do you insert your own pride into every praise to God?
Do you have to tell everyone around you all you’ve done in the name of God?
When is the last time you served God tangibly and didn’t announce it to the world?

Here are the scriptures referenced:

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Philippians 2:8 KJV

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Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
Matthew 6:1‭-‬4 KJV

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Here are Stu’s thoughts:

Ok, I will be the first to say that I am guilty as charged on this one.

There ARE a lot of I’s and me’s even while sharing what God has done in my life. And for that I am apologizing now. I need to change the way I point to God.

Now granted sometimes those I’s and me’s are necessary for the story to be told. But I never want to appear to take credit for what God is/has/will do!

And I pray I never come off as boastful. Someone please call me out if I do.

How can we stop placing ourselves in our stories when it actually places more emphasis on us than God?

By being truly humble in knowing that is was nothing that we did.

If we go to God for deliverance from an addiction and He delivers us then praise God for that deliverance. Yes, there are steps we must follow. But trust you me it is God who gets you through those steps.

Because if you could do it on your own you would have done so before asking God for deliverance. But one can’t! I personally tried that with the porn addiction…yeah didn’t work. So I cried out to God!

He set me free from those chains. I didn’t.

So we should be humble in our praise and thankfulness in what God has done for us and ensure that the glory goes more to Him than us!