BE HUMBLE

Proverbs 13:10 – by pride comes nothing but strife, but with the well – advised is wisdom.

God by default is love – 1 John 4:8. His actions are motivated by Love. When He gives, He gives out of love. John 3:16 says for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. And we know from studying John 3:27 that a man receives nothing except God has Ok’d it from His throne. Out of love for the poor, He takes offence when people oppress them - Proverbs 14:31, no wonder He says in Proverbs 19:17 that He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which He hath given will He pay him again. Even when He disciplines, He does it out of love. Hebrews 12:6 says for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He recieveth. If He has ever disciplined you for any reason please thank Him for that because He really loves you.

For God to move from been loving and sweet to hating a thing with a passion then we should keep distance with such a thing. One of those things is pride. Proverbs 16:5 says everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. He so much hates pride, Psalms 5:5 say the proud will not be able to stand before Him. He expects His children not to pick and choose who they will be humble to. Titus 3:2 says to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable , gentle, showing all humility to all men .When the bible says to all men , it means to all men – men and women , even to those who are proud to us. From time to time the Lord takes people from the dunghill and sits them on the throne; He expects extra humility from such men. Asides from God hating the pride, pride has nothing to offer except strife – Proverbs 13:10. The reason for many of the fights and quarrels we see today is pride. Many of the strifes in families, churches and business are as a result of pride. This party offends the other party and instead of apologising, he or she begins to justify his or her actions. It is pride to offend people and refuse to apologise. Pride has cost many their jobs. They begin to choose words with their managers or argue over petty issues. The manager in turn will keep quiet and begin to look for faults. Any little thing they do he will take it up and before you know it they are out of the job. Many problems could have been avoided if only people humbled themselves and sought for counsel. Some could have been avoided if only people humbled themselves and change after been corrected. Please let’s be humble in our dealings. When we are at fault let’s be humble and apologise, if the other party is at fault and refuses to apologise for the sake of peace lets apologise. Hebrew 12:14 says pursue peace with all men. A man shared his testimony with me recently. He incurred a huge phone bill at work and was invited for disciplinary and dismissal. When he got to the panel, the board came prepared with the HR manager present expecting to him argue and justify his actions but then he shocked them by humbly saying he was guilty and apologizing. The senior manager was so moved by his humility that he gave him a verbal warning instead of dismissing him. What if he had taken the defensive stance and begin to justify his actions, what would have happened? He would have been sacked !

PRAYER POINT: Father, please replace every ounce of pride in me with humility.