"Allusive Humility"
Now Moses was more humble than any other person on earth. (Numbers 12:3)
WOW! What a statement. Moses was the most humble man on the earth. We do see this actively in his life. I love how he approaches this difficult situation with Miriam & Aaron.
The first inclination in most of our hearts when we are attacked by others is to what, attack back right? They have lashed out against us and they deserve what's coming to them. Who do they think they are? Someone has hurt us so we have the RIGHT to hurt them. This is all perfectly logical isn't it? It may be logical but it's not biblical. Beyond biblical, it's certainly not godly. In fact, it's the opposite of godly. What if Jesus had approached life this way? Retaliating instead of forgiving? I digress.
See, Moses doesn't defend himself. He never even speaks to Aaron & Miriam. He does however speak to God. He lets the Lord fight his battles for him. He could have taken charge and rightly defended himself but he humbly depends on the Lord.
When it comes to our lives, we must approach our relationships this way. When others hurt us do we give it to God and let him fight for us? Or do we text back, facebook back, twitter back, & any other way of fighting back? The issue is, we lack humility. We lack the ability to remember our past, our bad decisions, our lack of perspective, & our flat out disregard for God. If we remembered who we are and especially who we were we would not deal so arrogantly with one another.
We see Moses' humility displayed even further when Miriam is struck with leprosy. "Oh Lord, please heal her," Moses prays. The people that have just accused him he is not interceding for! Now that is humility. He doesn't say, "You got what you deserved" or "Nah, na, nah, na boo boo!" He has compassion on her. He has compassion on his accuser! What humility!
Humility comes from an accurate understanding of who we are and who others are. We are imperfect sinners in need of a Savior. Others are imperfect sinners in need of a Savior. Furthermore, that Savior displayed the humble attitude we most need! Jesus was constantly critiqued by the religious leaders. He was constantly hunted by the religious leaders. He was abused and crucified all with the ability and right to blow everyone who afflicted him off planet earth. Now, that, that is humility. It's him we worship, it's him we love, & it's him we long to imitate.
The next time someone is critical of us, let's choose humility and let God fight for us! It's the most Christlike attitude we can display (Philippians 2). Not only that, let's pray that God would heal them like Moses did. It could be that their sinful attitude is coming from a deep wound that needs the healing touch of God that we have are in need of and if we know Jesus, have already received!
No comments:
Post a Comment