Living-loving like Jesus: Humility, episode 131 (rebroadcast)

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast and also help and hope for your own life journey. Saying once again, we've started the new year with a look at what God might want to do in our lives through this prodigal journey. If you have been listening to this podcast for very long, you have heard me say that God is just as committed to working in us as He is in our prodigals. He cares about our loved ones, but He also cares about us.

0:42 A primary purpose He has is to make us more and more like Jesus. I'm grateful that God has given us a clear picture of what He is working toward, what we will be like as we become more like Jesus. The Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 3, and I've read this the last two sessions, and I just think we need to get this verse, these verses, in our mind. It says, Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

1:31 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any one of you has a grievance against someone. Love as the Lord forgave you, and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. We're looking at each of these pieces of clothing week by week, and today we are looking at humility. My husband was a hard-working man. Our prodigal, in his younger years, was not. One day my husband came home, and our son was sitting on my car, watching his friends work on his car.

2:18 My husband's response was, Can't you help them fix your car? Or at least learn from them? You're just sitting watching them work. My husband rarely got angry, but he did that day. He came in, and he sat down to talk to God about it. The Lord had a question. So, Steve, how big is the gap between you and your son? He said, It's pretty big when it comes to work, especially. Then the Lord said, So how big is the gap between you and me? Steve?

2:59 Immediately my husband said, Oh, so much bigger. Give me, Lord, for thinking that I am better than my son. It's always risky to talk about humility. After all, to claim any expertise on humility is to negate any claim I might have to being humble. We do know, though, that the Father and Jesus Himself, as well as Peter, Paul, and James, clearly, admonished us to be humble ourselves, or God will need to do it for us. So to avert any such action by the Lord, I will let Scripture be our teacher.

3:43 So here's what it looks like to be humble. From the Father, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. When the Lord saw, this is in 2 Chronicles, when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah. Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them, but will soon give them deliverance.

4:28 In Isaiah 66 we read, "'Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being, declared the Lord? These are the ones I look on with favor, those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.'" Jesus had a few things to say about being humble as well. Matthew 11, "'Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.'" My husband did a substantial story on the most important characteristic for a follower of Christ to have, and he decided that it was to have a humble heart, just as Jesus mentioned.

5:28 In Matthew 23, "'For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.'" In Luke 18, "'I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.'" This was the beggar who came with his tiny offering for the Lord, and begged God to give him forgiveness for himself, for all that he had done. Next to him was a priest who came and said, "'God, thank you that I'm not like this man.'" And here's what Jesus said.

6:16 "'I tell you this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God, for all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.'" The apostle Paul also had a few things to say about it. "'For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you.'" I think that means all of us. "'Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.'" In Ephesians Paul says, "'Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love.'" And then in Philippians, "'Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility value others above yourself, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others.'" I am reminded of this often.

7:32 James, who is a brother of Jesus, says, "'Who is wise in understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom.'" And in James 4, but he gives us more grace. This is why scripture says, "'God opposes the proud, but gives favor to the humble.'" And then he goes on and says, "'Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.'" Then from Peter, he says, "'Finally all of you be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate, and humble.'" He also goes on and says, "'In the same way you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders, all of you, younger and elders, clothe yourself with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.'" I can hear my husband saying, "'I don't want God as my enemy, so I am going to choose to humble myself.'" He goes on and says, "'Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.'"

9:06 These reminders tend to put me on my face before him, claiming mercy and grace. They are not the only admonitions scripture full of commands. I read a lot of scripture saying to humble yourself, but there are many, many more. This is the teaching that Jesus said, "'Humble yourself, and then I will lift you to where I want you.'" When we are critical of our wanderers, we should take a moment to check our own pride and arrogance and humble ourselves before the Lord.

9:48 What about you? Where are you in your journey toward humility? Is there a situation where your pride is evident? Humbling yourself may encourage a change in your prodigal. So we've talked about compassion and kindness and humility. There's more coming. But next week, we're going to have another guest. His name is Ron Deal, and he works with blended families and helping people to grow in their marriages and to relate well to their children.

10:31 I think you're going to want to hear what he has to say. And then we'll get back to our study of living and loving like Jesus. You can get resources if you check out the show notes so that you can find places to go further in these concepts. God bless you.