Humility

God is teaching me so much these days. I'm having trouble retaining it all.

The other day I woke up thinking "Proverbs 3:7". I'm very familiar with Proverbs 3:5,6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." But verse 7 eluded me. Of course, I looked it up. Here it is:

"Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil."

One thing I love about God is that he not only tells us what to do, but he always gives us a promise to hold onto when we do. Verse 8 follows up by saying:

"This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones."

Who doesn't want to be healthy and have nourished bones? As the small-boned child of a mother suffering with osteoporosis at the age of 87 - I want to claim this promise! :o)

It seems simple, doesn't it? I mean, I know I'm not wise on my own. I've done some amazingly stupid things in my life that stand as proof of this simple truth. I have not been wise when I have relied on my own heart. This makes it seem like all we have to do is fear the Lord and shunning evil will be easy. Shunning evil is not that simple. I find myself dallying with evil everyday. For example, inevitably I'll slip and say something I never would have said if I'd been fearing the Lord.

What does it mean to "fear the Lord" then? In Proverbs 8:13 Wisdom is talking and she says that to fear the Lord is to hate evil. I've always heard that fear of the Lord meant to be in awe and reverence of Who He is. I believe that is a large part of this "fear" but I'm finding out it is more than that. When we are in awe of the Lord and we are revering Him, we are hating evil. To love Him is to love good. In loving good, we are hating evil. If we hate something, don't we stay away from it? Like, say, brussel sprouts, if you hate them, do you search them out and eat them? Do you order them at a restaurant? No! You shun them. I wish it was that easy with behaviors. I want it to be. Desperately.

I could go on and on. I think it comes down to this, we need to remember Who God Is. Let me tell you a story. One day several years ago I was going to meet some women at a small Baptist Church to do a prayer walk. They had felt led to do this, had called the pastor and set it up and had called and asked me to join them. They were from a church where I was attending a ladies Bible study at the time. I arrived at the appointed time to find only the pastor and two elderly ladies of their church there. We waited a few minutes and then decided to get started. The pastor and I went one direction and the two ladies the other. As we walked and prayed the pastor told me about the neighborhood. He pointed out the crack houses and talked about how God was beginning to break into these people's hearts with His Presence in this church and how it was a light in the darkness. When we met up with the two ladies we stood there and talked a few minutes. I will never in my entire life forget what happened next. I said something about "the Big Guy Upstairs". One of the ladies looked me square in the eye and said, "Don't ever call my God "Big Guy" and diminish who he is. He is so much more than we will ever know." I looked back at her, severely humbled, and said, "You are so right. I am so sorry. It will never happen again." Then she hugged me and told me she loved me. The other women who were meeting us drove up about that time. They had been unable to find the church all that time. God is amazing. He appointed that time for me to hear those words of truth from a woman I would probably never meet again. I believe He loves me enough to go to all that trouble to speak to me personally. He brought me to the light in that dark neighborhood. Here I was thinking I was all that - sent here to pray for this poor church in this poor neighborhood. Humility. The cool thing is I was not humiliated. I was humbled. I was brought to my knees by a humble woman imploring me to honor her God. My God. The Creator of heaven and earth. The Almighty. The One Who Loves.

Ok, so wow, I just found this verse - this very minute - Psalm 141:5 " Let those who are right with God punish me and speak strong words to me in kindness. It is oil upon my head. Do not let my head turn away from it. " (New Life Version)

That whole scenario was scriptural. All these years later God is still using it to speak to me. I love Him so very much.


Today is Maundy Thursday. The Last Supper. The day Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Today may I serve as He served, humbly and with great love.