humility
I've referred to humility before.... to a definition I heard at Roots last year (by Captain Danielle Strickland). She said that humility was agreeing with God about who you are.
I've been thinking about this again - God has been teaching me some very hard lessons on the subject of humility and it is very unpleasant and very disturbing.... but also absolutely necessary as I realise I am far from being humble.
Recently I've had my home and family foundations shaken violently.... things that I thought were fairly sure, solid and secure aren't. Now its my need for status, recognition.... I don't know quite what it is but I still have this desire to be 'good at something'. Working in an academic culture and with no jobs being totally secure any more, even here, there is this constant striving for recognition, for qualifications, longer and longer hours, shorter breaks (if any)...... taking on more and more responsibility in the hope that my position is more secure, that I am valued to some extent..... that perhaps, if I wasn't here, I'd be missed.
I know that all of this is very very far from being humble in God's sight.... I see that I have pride rearing its ugly head and I don't like it. I've been looking at some stuff about humility that has helped. This is what I've found: The chief charactiristic of Christian humility is the acknowledgement of total and utter dependence upon God our creator and redeemer, the beginning and end of all life. Its a mature dependence however because this inner submission does not enslave us, but rather frees us to grow into the people we have it in us to be. Christian humility is about understanding our true place in the universe as part of God's creation. It is not about putting ourselves down - it is quite the opposite, not about focussing on ourselves at all but looking towards God and grounded in an understanding of his very nature. True humility frees us from obsession with success and failure and we are freed simply to be faithful. We are freed as Christians to celebrate our own strenghts and other's successes, as having their origin in the grace of God. Failure or weakness are not to be feared for they literally bring us 'down to earth' back to humility and our proper relationship of total and strangely liberating dependence upon God, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness. The God who can really start working through us only when we stop trying to do it all on our own.
Thanks for the above from a website of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon - part of a sermon by Revd Martin Gorick.
I'm looking forward to that freedom......... I am looking forward to God being able to really start working through me when I stop trying to do it all on my own!
I know who I am in Christ....... thanks to His Word and the Freedom in Christ material we are using in our Ward (Cell) groups. All of this just helps me to realise that I have a long way to go on this journey....... I have heaps and heaps to learn........ but most of all that I have a most wonderful, patient, and Faithful God as my friend and my Saviour.
I've been thinking about this again - God has been teaching me some very hard lessons on the subject of humility and it is very unpleasant and very disturbing.... but also absolutely necessary as I realise I am far from being humble.
Recently I've had my home and family foundations shaken violently.... things that I thought were fairly sure, solid and secure aren't. Now its my need for status, recognition.... I don't know quite what it is but I still have this desire to be 'good at something'. Working in an academic culture and with no jobs being totally secure any more, even here, there is this constant striving for recognition, for qualifications, longer and longer hours, shorter breaks (if any)...... taking on more and more responsibility in the hope that my position is more secure, that I am valued to some extent..... that perhaps, if I wasn't here, I'd be missed.
I know that all of this is very very far from being humble in God's sight.... I see that I have pride rearing its ugly head and I don't like it. I've been looking at some stuff about humility that has helped. This is what I've found: The chief charactiristic of Christian humility is the acknowledgement of total and utter dependence upon God our creator and redeemer, the beginning and end of all life. Its a mature dependence however because this inner submission does not enslave us, but rather frees us to grow into the people we have it in us to be. Christian humility is about understanding our true place in the universe as part of God's creation. It is not about putting ourselves down - it is quite the opposite, not about focussing on ourselves at all but looking towards God and grounded in an understanding of his very nature. True humility frees us from obsession with success and failure and we are freed simply to be faithful. We are freed as Christians to celebrate our own strenghts and other's successes, as having their origin in the grace of God. Failure or weakness are not to be feared for they literally bring us 'down to earth' back to humility and our proper relationship of total and strangely liberating dependence upon God, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness. The God who can really start working through us only when we stop trying to do it all on our own.
Thanks for the above from a website of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon - part of a sermon by Revd Martin Gorick.
I'm looking forward to that freedom......... I am looking forward to God being able to really start working through me when I stop trying to do it all on my own!
I know who I am in Christ....... thanks to His Word and the Freedom in Christ material we are using in our Ward (Cell) groups. All of this just helps me to realise that I have a long way to go on this journey....... I have heaps and heaps to learn........ but most of all that I have a most wonderful, patient, and Faithful God as my friend and my Saviour.
posted by Ann at 12:35 pm
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