God honors humility.
God HIGHLY honors great humility.
Jesus—the WORD and expression of God, the LOGOS of God—set that aside, humbled himself to become a man, a squalling infant born on the road, then nailed naked to a cross, and even submitted to the ultimate indignity of death. He took humility further than anyone, and as a result, God will honor Him more than anyone else.
Consider Philippians 2:5-11:
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being found in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God highly exalted Him and has bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” Philippians 2:5-11.
I thought of my father when I quoted this long-memorized passage to myself today. He has no choice but to submit to the many indignities of age and Alzheimer’s. He will go downhill until his earthly story ends in the ultimate humiliation of death. And ALL our stories will end that way. But take courage—be encouraged. Have hope! Because God is storing up treasures in heaven for everything Grandpa suffers. That is my prayer for him—that every day he is storing up new treasure in heaven. (See Joni Eareckson Tada’s comment on Ephesians 3:10 here.)
But we are ALSO storing up treasures. Every humiliation, chosen or forced upon us, creates more treasure in our eternal account—where neither moth nor rust destroy. You’ll never lose that investment! And Grandpa may be “stacking bills” in heaven during these last days more than ever before in his life, because he is suffering greater humiliations than ever before in his life.
God glorified and exalted Jesus because he humbled himself. God will reward us when we humble ourselves too.
“With humility of mind, let each one of you regard others as more important than yourself” Philippians 2:3.
Be a servant today. Try to do it secretly (to prevent the motive of recognition). Be a SECRET SERVANT.
ΑΩ
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