Epaggelia

Micah put this truth forward centuries before Christ.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk _____________ with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Walking humbly with our God, of course, is humbling ourselves before God. Acting justly and loving mercy are respecting and showing concern for our neighbors, humble service of others. 

What Humility Is Not. Humility has sometimes been distorted into self-abasement, self-denigration, lack of courage, non-assertiveness & low self-esteem. To clarify what we mean by true biblical humility, we’ll flesh out from Scripture what authentic biblical humility looks like. Humility can be seen throughout the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-10.

1. Meekness Is Not Weakness

The world sometimes considers weakness as wimpy. The word translated “meek” in Greek is “praus”, meaning “the attitude or mindset of not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance, but gentle, considerate & self-controlled.” In the Bible, the meek are not the weak and docile, but the ones who endure oppression and persecution and still stand in faith. They are the persevering confident saints of God that can rejoice even in service that hurts. They are tough!

2. Humility Is Not Timid or Passive.

The phrase “Meek as a mouse” is heard often enough to identify meekness with timidity and fear, with running from a challenge, “a timid, meek, or unassertive person. This describes neither Moses (Numbers 12:3) nor Jesus, nor the disciples Jesus is laboring to form. Jesus is not passive.

FOUR REASONS TO ADOPT A HUMBLE MINDSET

1. The apostle Paul instructs and encourages us to have a mindset of humility in Colossians 3:12-14. 
2. Even divine love itself carries within it humility, see 1st Corinthians 13:4. 
3. Humility gives priority to the concerns and needs of other people, Philippians 2:3-5.
4. Everything we have is from God (Dt. 8:18; 1st Cor. 4:6-7). Since everything we have has been given to us by God, we have no reason for boasting in self, that we are somehow better than others, we don’t boast over a gift, but we should boast of the Giver.

“I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, 

but to think with __________  ____________________, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith”. (Romans 12:3)