Humble Yourself

All humans are selfish and sinful by nature.  Our human nature was corrupted in Adam and Eve when they sinned and it has been passed down to each and every one of us.  Now, don’t go laying a bunch of guilt on Adam and Eve for your condition until you realize that God has provided a deliverance for you through Jesus Christ.

Because of this we struggle with temptation and sin.  Paul understood this when he wrote Romans 7:15-24. Here is a part of that passage.
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. …I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing.

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

Unfortunately, pride keeps us from experiencing the victory that God has for us.  We try to overcome sin on our own.  By doing so, we are in eeffect saying, I can take care of this myself.”  We set ourselves up as our own god. 

Psalm 10:4 says, “The wicked in his proud countenance foes not seek God…”.  Why not?  Becasue in his mind he does not need God.  Conversely, Proverbs 11:2 tells us, “When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.

God wants to exalt us or lift us up as He states in I Peter 5:6,7.  God’s willingness to ‘exalt us’ is connected to our willingness to be humble.   As we humble ourselves by accepting and confessing our inability to handle our problems, temptations, and sins and in turn give them over to God Then He lifts us up.

It is in our weakness that His strength is made perfect.   When we are the most humble, the Holy Spirit is the strongest in our lives.  He produces fruit in our lives.  Galations 5:22-23 tells us about this fruit.  One of them listed is self control.  Wouldn’t you like a little more of that when dealing with temptation and sin?

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