Okay, it’s not really the “secret” key, but more accurately, it is the overlooked key.
Even if you know it, chances are that you don’t understand it or even define it correctly.
It is the ultimate defense against all sin and the one critical component to living a fulfilling and satisfying life.
It is the answer to all your relationship problems and all the hardship in your life.
Jesus enables us to experience it more purely than trying to replicate it on our own, but having Jesus in your life doesn’t guarantee that you have it.
It fights against everything culture has told us is important, it fights against the American dream, and there will be people who think you are a fool for living with it.
What is it?
It’s humility.
That’s probably not the answer you wanted to hear. In our church today, we feel more satisfied with saying special prayers or doing something special in order to garner God’s favor. But God doesn’t work like that. If you want to experience the glory of God, His power and His Blessings, in ways you’ve never experienced before, you need to constantly work on becoming more and more humble.
But what is humility? Many people live under the false assumption that humility is putting yourself down or hiding in the shadows. That isn’t humility at all and is often nothing more than pride rearing it’s ugly head.
The Bible gives us a clear definition of humility in Proverbs 22:4, “Humility is the fear of the Lord,” and proof that it is the key to a blessed life is found in the second half of the verse, “its wages are riches and honor and life.“
What does that look like in our lives? Again, scripture gives us a clear answer. Philippians 2:3-4 reads, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
Another way I’ve heard it expressed well is in the saying, “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but instead thinking of yourself less.”
Humility involves remembering the reality of who you are. God is big. You are little. God is Lord. You are His Child. God is all knowing, all powerful and all present. You are not. God is in charge. You respect Him.
What humility reminds us is that perception is everything. If you are humble, is God going to give you a new sports car or a bigger house? Maybe, maybe not. But if you remember that you are little and God is big, and you take your mind off of yourself and everything you feel like you “deserve”, you remember that nothing you did got you the car or house you have now and suddenly the feeling of being blessed is released into your heart. It doesn’t matter so much if you are actually blessed. What we want is to FEEL blessed. If you choose between feeling blessed and loved by the Father and living in a cardboard box verses constantly grumbling about not having enough but living in a 20,000 square foot mansion, which would you pick?
Humility also involves having a servant’s heart. If you are at a party and your mind is consumed with yourself and if you’re saying the right things and look okay, you won’t have any mental energy for noticing the person who doesn’t know anyone and would love to make a friend or the person carrying a huge dish of food and needs someone to open the door for them.
There are even studies that have come out confirming that humility makes you more attractive to other people, or at least makes you more likely to be chosen out of a group.
Humility, though, isn’t always easy to achieve. Here are a couple of practical hints about how to build humility into your character.
1. Every time you begin to throw yourself a pity party, train your mind to think of someone else.
We all do it. Our mind goes off on it’s own and before we know it, we have thrown ourselves a full blown pity party. We begin to obsess over this person being mean to us or not having that shiny bauble we think we deserve. We dwell on how it’s not fair that we had to go through the struggles we’ve been through or we become envious of all the attention another person gets instead of us. When you realize your mind is going there, try to think of someone dealing with the same situation or a worse situation. Pray for them. Have compassion for them. Write them a kind note or call them up. Take a moment to refocus on the struggles of others and your own pity party will vanish.
2. Every time you begin to think about how much better you are than another person, change your focus to thinking about someone you consider better than you.
Other times, we begin to dwell on our own greatness. This can be sneaky because seldom do most people sit around saying, “I am awesome. I am so much better than everyone around me.” Instead, the pride sneaks in the back door and leads us down the path of looking down on others because of their house or their clothes or even their bad choices. We get into judgement mode and while it doesn’t feel like we are thinking about ourselves, the rest of the thought that starts, “Look at that crappy car they drive….” actually ends with “…my car is so much better”. Instead of going down that road, spend time thinking about a mentor or someone you admire or look up to. It could be someone you know personally or a famous person you admire. Think about their life and things that you can learn from them. If you can, write them a note or call them. It takes the attention off of you and knocks you off your high horse at the same time.
3. Push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Sometimes we don’t realize how much we rely on God for the things we have because we refuse to step out of our comfort zone. For those of us who have control issues, we like to stay in situations where we feel like we are in complete control and everything that needs to be done is within out power. But Christ doesn’t call us to live a life like that. He wants us to step out and rely on Him. Until you try to do something that is impossible under your own power, you will never see how mighty God’s intervention is. I’ve never seen someone who has really seen God work not come away from the experience more humble than when they started.
Practice humility every day and eventually it will become a way of life. Do you have any tricks for building humility into your life? Comment below.
Jenny Wright--Blog Home 