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How to Humble Yourself: A Step-by-Step Plan

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February 2, 2019

James 4:7-9

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

CONSIDER THIS

Yesterday’s Daily Text questions closed with the promise that I would bring this issue of turning away from our prideful spirit and embracing humility before us again today. The text does a masterful job without my help at all. Look at the verbs alone:

Submit. Resist. Come near. Wash. Purify. Grieve. Mourn. Wail. Change. Humble yourselves.

So when James (or anyone else in the Bible for that matter) instructs us to humble ourselves, he means this: Submit. Resist. Come near. Wash. Purify. Grieve. Mourn. Wail. Change. Humble yourselves.

In other words, humility, the signal quality of the “mind of Christ,” is not something that happens in your head. It’s a visceral reality. It’s not “thinking” oriented. It’s action based. Submit. Resist. Come near. Wash. Purify. Grieve. Mourn. Wail. Change. Humble yourselves.

I’m going to cut my commentary short today. James just doesn’t need my help. I’m going to leave you with this text. I want you to read it again, aloud. I want you to meditate on it. Pretend this text is the bone and you are the dog (that’s not meant derisively). This is actually the biblical way of meditation—getting every last bit of meat off of a bone and then savoring the bone itself. Let this text lead you into a posture of humility—kneeling, or laying face down the floor or bowing in some way. Speak words aloud to God. Write them out on paper. Tell Siri to write them down. Whatever it takes. ;0)  We are dealing with the inner life here, which means we have to take extra steps to make this work tangible. James is bringing us to the altar of God.

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

THE PRAYER

God, our Father, I want to be a real Christian. I want to walk in the path of submission and resistance and drawing near; of being washed and purified. Teach me to grieve, mourn, and wail that I might change and become truly humble. In short, I want to be like Jesus. In his name I pray, amen.

THE QUESTIONS

1. Which verbs in this list jump out at you?

2. What might it mean for you to “resist the devil?”

3. Are you ready to “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord?” Where might you go– a hidden and solitary place– to do this? Mark the day in some way you can remember it going forward. Put down a stake. Pick up a rock. Write it down. Whatever it takes.

For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

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WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

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