Monday, February 4, 2013

Humility (Part Two)

In the bible, it shows us MANY examples of how to be humbe. There are people to obeyed God's word, willingly, and showed humility in some of the hardest situations. The first one I want to talk about is Mary. This is what happens in Luke 1:30-38

"But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. "
 How would you feel if an angel asked you to give birth to the Son of God? Scared? Nervous? I know I would! Mary is the perfect example of humility in this situation! We should say, "I am the Lord's sevant" just as she did to every situation, no matter how hard it is to do. I know I really struggle with doing this.

Another great man of the bible is John the Baptist. He knew of Jesus coming, and clearly made it known that he is worthy, and that Jesus was much greater than him. Matthew 3:11 says
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
John the Baptist was humble by not thinking he was the greatest, and that is what made him seem so great! You see how humility makes you the best? Later, Jesus asked him to baptize him. John did, but not with pride. With humility. John was a great man.


In Mark 12:41-44, a widow gave everything she had to the church, which was only a couple small copper coins. Jesus makes a point, that really, she gave more than the rich people
"Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.  But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
         This widow showed humility. She gave EVERYTHING she had to go to the church... EVERYTHING!! What if you gave everything you have to the church? That would be hard, sometimes being humble is hard. I am sure God blessed her!

Now for my favorite verse: Acts 5:40 &41

"They (The Jewish leaders) called the apostles in again. They beat the apostles and told them not to speak in the name of Jesus again. Then they let them go free. The apostles left the meeting full of joy because they were given the honor of suffering disgrace for Jesus"
The apostles were so faithful to Jesus! They gave everything up for Jesus, followed him, and watched him perform many miracles, and then he got taken away, and suffered and tortured then died on the cross! Then they go out and preach the Word. They get beaten by the people who killed Jesus, and they were overjoyed? I don't know about you, but that is just crazy (in a good way)! I wrote another blog post on this one, but I wanted to show how it related to humility.
 

Now for the most humble person of all, JESUS!! There are so many examples of how was humble, like speaking to crowds, being with the little children and taking his time to heal people and help people know God. But the most humble thing anyone has ever done, was Jesus sacrificing himself. When I was little I used to think. Yeah, if it were me, I would die on a cross to save everyone. But it's more complex than that. First of all, Jesus knew, that still, although he scarificed himself, not everyone would take that opportunity to know Jesus and to thank him. In fact, people are AGAINST christianity and don't believe he ever did that. Second of all, he was a king, and he should have been treated like royalty. But that's not how it worked. He went below everyone, he didn't rise above everyone and announce "I AM THE KING AND EVRYONE SHOULD BOW DOWN TO ME!!" Instead he went to the poor and washed people's feet. Also, it's not as simple as just"dying on the cross". He got whipped, and was weak and had to carry his own cross, and his hands and feet were nailed to the cross. It's not like it was a quick and painless death. He stayed on the cross for hours until he died, and even then, taking up the sin of the world, God, his own father, had to look away (How would you feel if your father had to look away from you and not be able to support you in this time of suffering?). Another thing, is Jesus had the choice of angels to save him, and bring him to heaven. But he didn't. Honestly, now, I think I would ask angels to save me. I would be terrified. But Jesus knew what was right, and really, we should be humble to him BECAUSE of what he has done, and many other reasons, like how subjects are humble to their kings.
Humility solves many things. I did not wirte these two blog posts just to say that you are all prideful and sinful and you should be humble blah blah blah. I wrote these, because I struggle with humility, especially with all of my brothers and sisters. God will always love you, and be proud of you  no matter what you do. Humility just makes your relationship with God better, and you, generally, happier. I researchedthe bible and wrote this to help you (and definietly me) find this key to happiness. Jesus is happiness, and humility helps you discover more about Jesus because that was who he was: humble.