James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

These 10 verses have some very famous lines in them. At the same time, we don’t like verse nine in particular, and we don’t much like verse four, either. The thing is, many things about God’s economy, that is, the way things work in His kingdom, are extremely different from the way things work in society around us. That’s why this verse, along with verse six, is so important. When we insist that things be as we think they ought to be, we are miserable! We need to have the humility to say that we can’t figure it out, but God is right, all the time. After all, humility is an internal thing, an attitude of the mind and heart. It’s not at all that we aren’t to use the minds God has given us, but it is to say that we must remember that we don’t have the mental horsepower to figure it all out on our own. Logical thinking was what led Solomon to marry so many foreign women, as a means of diplomacy instead of fighting, but that led to his idolatry, and that messed everything up. Solomon knew how to exalt himself in the eyes of the world, and it destroyed his standing before God. The world today thinks much like Solomon, and look at the mess it’s in. This is all part of verse seven, the one I quote most often out of this whole passage: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” When we think we know better than God, we certainly aren’t submitted to Him, and therefore are unable to resist the devil effectively.

As I have written many times, pride has been a snare to me all my life.  When God showed me my own soul, just for an instant, the blackness of the pride that was there just about destroyed me. I can’t say I’ve totally conquered it, but at least I’m aware of the danger. Humility before God is always the best course! God has given me many abilities, and sometimes He has to let me run into walls to teach me I don’t have all the answers. Just this morning I was talking with my wife about someone who fixates on a scenario and can’t seem to grasp anything that conflicts with that. I do the same thing! I’ve got to let God be God, holding onto the truths He’s revealed to me but always remembering that I only have a small fraction of the total picture. I don’t know other people’s circumstances, much less their hearts, so I’m to be active in yielding them to God. I am a part of the Body of Christ, but a very small part indeed, and that’s just fine. I’m to be faithful with all that God places in my hands, anｄ know that it’s all grace.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all that You are doing, in me and in the people around me. I don’t even know how to be properly humble! Help me follow You step by step, so that all of Your purposes for me may be fulfilled, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!