Humble Man Kneeling Then Crowned by Christby KandD
15:33Proverbs 15:33
The fear of the LORDis the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.
The rule laid down is that humility comes before honor and honor follows after humility. Heaven fills a high place before men with the worker who takes a lowly place before God.
The humility required is a meek, lowly, self-abasing spirit and modesty that avoids pride and self-esteem, envy and striving for supremacy. It joins courage and integrity with distrust of self, a sense of personal insufficiency and unworthiness, and willingness to follow divine guidance and rely on God as leader and source of strength.
By this rule those of greatest talents or prominent position are not always chosen, including rulers, priests, Levites, and those the world honors as great, talented and brilliant, because they are too often proud and self-sufficient and feel competent to act without counsel from God, so He passes them by. Pride, envy, and striving for supremacy, and making oneself seem indispensable, can cause people to fail where they might have succeeded and lead God to set them aside.
God instead sees and chooses the worker who takes a lowly place before Him and exalts that worker to a high place before others, as seen in Gideon who regarded himself as the least in his father's house and in John the Baptist. Through such humble people God works most effectually by uniting their weakness to His might and their ignorance to His wisdom. Feeling need of divine help, they plead for it and receive through communion with Christ and the Holy Spirit glimpses of Jesus that strengthen and uplift them, with heavenly intelligences cooperating with the one who seeks not to exalt self, anointing them for their mission.
The most childlike disciple thus becomes the most effective and efficient worker for God because the aim is to save souls and work for sinners and those perishing in sin, succeeding where many learned and intellectually wise people fail. True greatness is taking the lowly place and serving others rather than seeking rank or distinction.
God then entrusts faithful servants with greater responsibilities in His own time, and He could do much more if true humility were cherished, since few can be trusted with large responsibility or success without becoming self-confident and forgetful of dependence on God. Such humility is repeatedly commanded, belongs to a Christlike life, is essential to communion with God and receiving His favor, and prepares people for His kingdom.
The rule laid down is that humility comes before honor and honor follows after humility. Heaven fills a high place before men with the worker who takes a lowly place before God.
The humility required is a meek, lowly, self-abasing spirit and modesty that avoids pride and self-esteem, envy and striving for supremacy. It joins courage and integrity with distrust of self, a sense of personal insufficiency and unworthiness, and willingness to follow divine guidance and rely on God as leader and source of strength.
By this rule those of greatest talents or prominent position are not always chosen, including rulers, priests, Levites, and those the world honors as great, talented and brilliant, because they are too often proud and self-sufficient and feel competent to act without counsel from God, so He passes them by. Pride, envy, and striving for supremacy, and making oneself seem indispensable, can cause people to fail where they might have succeeded and lead God to set them aside.
God instead sees and chooses the worker who takes a lowly place before Him and exalts that worker to a high place before others, as seen in Gideon who regarded himself as the least in his father's house and in John the Baptist. Through such humble people God works most effectually by uniting their weakness to His might and their ignorance to His wisdom. Feeling need of divine help, they plead for it and receive through communion with Christ and the Holy Spirit glimpses of Jesus that strengthen and uplift them, with heavenly intelligences cooperating with the one who seeks not to exalt self, anointing them for their mission.
The most childlike disciple thus becomes the most effective and efficient worker for God because the aim is to save souls and work for sinners and those perishing in sin, succeeding where many learned and intellectually wise people fail. True greatness is taking the lowly place and serving others rather than seeking rank or distinction.
God then entrusts faithful servants with greater responsibilities in His own time, and He could do much more if true humility were cherished, since few can be trusted with large responsibility or success without becoming self-confident and forgetful of dependence on God. Such humility is repeatedly commanded, belongs to a Christlike life, is essential to communion with God and receiving His favor, and prepares people for His kingdom.