"...and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time," (1 Peter 5:5-6 NKJV)
God desires that all of His children live profitable and successful lives, and He has given us His Word to show us how to live such lives! In Isaiah 48:17, He said, "...I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go." (NKJV). This shows us His passion for the success of His children and how willing He is to teach us to be successful and profitable. As you study the Bible, you'll find that those who walked with God and became great men and women with God had many characteristics and attitudes in common. Humility was a major and key characteristic and attitude that they all had in common, and it ensured their constant growth, success and promotion in, with and by God. As you examine the lives of great men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, Paul, the Apostles of the Lord Jesus, and many others, you'll find that humility was a prevalent attitude of their hearts and their teachings. The lives of these men were full of demonstrations of great humility before God and in life that caused them to keep growing continually and powerfully in the Lord and in their lives. You'll find many instructions about the importance of being ruled by humility in our hearts and shunning pride and arrogance in the writings and teachings of these men of God.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob walked with God in such extraordinary ways and prospered continually and increasingly in their lives because of the humility that controlled and ruled their hearts in the presence of God; and this humility was manifested in their speech and their actions towards God and other people. God described Moses as the meekest (most humble) man to ever walk the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3), and as you study Moses' walk with God, it was nothing short of inspiring—it was excellent and fully of glory! The Book of Psalms contains many psalms of David, and in them you find David speaking continually on God's love and honour for humility and His displeasure towards proud and arrogant attitudes and minds. Humility ruled David's heart and mind, and as you study his life, you find that he had one of the most inspiring walks with God in all the Bible because of that!
The instructions given in our opening Scripture were given by the Spirit of God through the Apostle Peter. He instructed the Church to be clothed with humility and for us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Such words show you the attitudes that governed the hearts of the great Apostles of the Lord Jesus; they show you a paramount secret behind their success with God. It's no wonder that they were clothed with such great humility because their very Master and Teacher—the Lord Jesus—wasn't only humble, but taught them to be humble and rebuked and despised pride and arrogance. He taught and led them in the ways of humility, and this ensured that they had fruitful and successful relationships with God—He taught them how to profit, and He led them in the paths of righteousness.
Humility is an important principle for unending growth and promotion in life. It's a guaranteed way to be a success with God and to live a progressive life. Without it, the paths of life and success will be very difficult because God resists and opposes proud and arrogant thoughts and attitudes, like our opening Scripture says: "...God resists the proud...". This is because a major part of the nature of God is humility; and that nature hates and despises pride. Proverbs 6:16-19 gives us a list of some attitudes, characteristics and ways that God hates—pride is number one on that list. If you allow pride and arrogance to work in your heart, you're setting yourself up for a hard and failure-ridden life.
How do you think about God? Do you recognise His authority and greatness? Do you humble and submit yourself to that authority and greatness? Do you argue with the Word of God when it comes to you? Your answers to these questions will tell you whether you're functioning with humility or with pride. Humility is an attitude of the heart that controls and influences your character, speech and actions. Are you easily offended and quick to become heated and angry if you feel like someone is wronging you? Are your words full of disrespect, insults and abuse towards others? Do you dislike being told what to do by those who have authority over you at Church, home, school, work etc? Do you have thoughts and tendencies of rebellion against authority, rules and instructions? If your answer is "Yes" to these questions, then that's a strong indication of the presence of pride in your heart and you'd need to make the necessary changes and adjustments with speed to avoid God's hand of discipline against the pride in your heart; and if you've been that way for a long time it's certain that many frustrations would have occurred in your life already because of it. So, you can choose to change your heart and attitude immediately, praying to God for forgiveness concerning the pride in your heart, and by choosing to walk in humility from then onwards. Once you do that and make that decision, you'll find the light, wisdom, glories, successes, victories, promotions, growths and joys of God filling your life!
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