The Lowly Baby Jesus

by Jon Walker
The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional

Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. (Philippians 2:6-7, NLT)

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Humility is such a slippery slope. The more conscious you are of being humble, the less likely you are to remain humble. It’s like the old joke about the humble man who received an award for his ever-present humility. The problem was, once he stepped forward to receive the award, they had to take it away from him. Ha!

The thing is this: Most of us approach humility in one of two ways.

1. The first approach is consciously acting as if we are humble; we create a false humility by trying to imitate what we think humility looks like.
2. The second approach is to assume we’re not worthy, that we’re some how second class.

Neither of these approaches reflects authentic biblical humility. The biblical approach to humility means you understand exactly who you are – but more importantly – you understand exactly whose you are, and that God has placed you where he wants you, for such a time as this.

In this way, your humility is not attached to your self-esteem.

In other words, rather than trying to think less of yourself, think more of God. You begin to agree with his view of you and that you are totally dependent upon him.
From this emerges a Christ-like humility. You’re no longer burdened by having to know all the answers or be in control of everything.

What does this mean?

1. Dependence requires humility – You will succeed in your purpose because of who God is, not because of who you are. God loves you and wants you to succeed; he will support you in your mission for him, not because you pretend toward perfection, but because he knows you can’t succeed without him.
2. Humility leads to purpose – As you move toward dependence (a biblical humility) on God, he gives you his strength for any task before you – to take the steps of faith required to complete your purpose. For such a time as this, God created you, prepared you, and called you to share the Good News.
3. Christ-like humility – Look at the picture of humility Jesus presents in Philippians 2. Ask God to show you what needs to change in your life in order for you to fit into this picture of humility. Where is there false humility? Or where do you believe you are, in a sense, worthless, that you are not fearfully and wonderfully made by God? “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”
   

© 2007 Jon Walker. All rights reserved.