Chapter 14
HIS HUMILITY FOR YOUR PRIDE
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
MATTHEW 11:29 NIV
132 U-Turn Victories
A U-turn represents a path to victory. I concluded that after a devotional reading of Exodus 10. It details the locust plague, part of the ten plagues God brought to Egypt.
In the account of the plagues, you read repeatedly that Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to submit to God’s command to let His people go. “… His heart was unyielding, and he would not let the people go” (Exodus 9:7 NIV).
Exodus 10:3 (NIV) reveals the underlying issue. God asks, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?”
The Israelites knew they were slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh was a slave to his pride, but he didn’t know it. No one was going to tell him what to do!
Do you act like Pharaoh in conflict situations? My automatic response in conflict is too often pride-driven. There’s a way of escape.
A U-turn represents a humble heart yielded to God’s leadership. Like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, the humble heart says, “May your will be done” (Matthew 26:42).
That’s part of loving God and people. An ongoing attitude of repentance produces a humble, submissive heart.
A U-turn represents a 180-degree turn from your natural pride-driven desire to control your life. Hard hearts and blinded eyes travel in pairs. Repentance sets you free from both.
Is pride or humility more likely to drive your reaction in conflict? How does a U-turn from pride lead to victory? Read Romans 15.
133 Hidden Cargo
I was fishing in Lake Erie near Cedar Point Amusement Park. A sharp object on the bottom of the lake cut my fishing line. I lost my lure. A little later my anchor line went slack. I lost my anchor too. What was happening?
Unimaginable numbers of zebra and quagga mussels with razor-sharp shells plastered the lake bottom. The Great Lakes have quadrillions—more than 9,000 per square foot in places.
They’ve altered the ecology of the Great Lakes more than any other living thing has in the last 10,000 years. They’re native to the basins of the Black and Caspian Seas and rivers in the former Soviet Union.
Foreign ships brought them to the Great Lakes. They released their mussel-containing ballast water there. They’ve spread by hitch-hiking on recreational boats to other waters in the United States, including the Susquehanna River, where I usually fish.
You can see others’ hidden cargo. But rarely your own. You observe their obvious “better than you” thinking and behaving.
That attitude killed about six million Jews because people imagined that they were inferior. You saw it in the college admissions scandal of 2019.
It’s everywhere present. It criticizes, minimizes, slashes, burns, argues, lies, cheats, and steals to get what it “deserves.” It puts others in their place.
Like a self-justifying terrorist driving a car through a crowd, it leaves destruction in its wake. It’s called pride. It leads to destruction (Proverbs 16:18). You see it everywhere but in yourself. Beware!
How does the hidden cargo of pride adversely affect completing your God-given purpose? Read Romans 16.
134 Pursuing Glory
Pursuing personal glory is a distinctly human trait. Lions, tigers, and bears don’t go after it. They seek dominance, not glory.
Running hard after glory is a peculiarly human wish. We want others to celebrate, praise, and exalt us above other people. The demand for glory always exceeds the supply. Pursuing it spawns conflicts galore.
You chase glory primarily through achievements. I’ve done more than a little glory-chasing since I first wore diapers. Honor and celebration don’t satisfy me for very long.
The lack of satisfaction is a clue. God didn’t create you to pursue glory through personal accomplishments. Nevertheless, like a glory addict, you frequently scheme how to get your next fix.
Typically, you accept glory from others but don’t pursue glory from God (John 5:44). Underneath it all lies insecurity and the desire for others to love you as you are.
Jesus can help you manage this misdirected glory urge. You’re wise if you follow His example. He didn’t seek glory for Himself (John 8:50) or accept glory from human beings (John 5:41).
He pursued God’s glory by finishing his assigned work (John 17:4) and bearing much fruit (John 15:8). He teaches you that glory is a by-product of living a humble, obedient life.
The glory you seek for yourself means nothing. Like a flower of the field or fireworks display, it quickly fades away (1 Peter 1:24). Chasing glory is good—God’s glory! The glory God gives means everything (John 8:54). He will be your glory forever (Isaiah 60:19).
What will you do today to bring glory to God instead of yourself?
Read 1 Corinthians 1.
135 The Greatest of All Time
Dvora Meyers authored an article for Vice News about Simone Biles.1 I read it because I admire Simone’s gymnastic routines. She performs flawlessly moves I couldn’t do in my dreams. No other female in world history has even attempted those moves in competition.
She’s won more world championship gymnastic medals than any other male or female. She’s the greatest gymnast of all time.
At four feet eight inches, her accomplishments tower above all female gymnasts. She dominates her sport as no other male or female does.
If you were her, do you think that would make you happy? There’s more to Dvora Meyers’ story.
When you’re the greatest of all time in a sport, whatever you achieve after you retire will pale in comparison. She has worked hard to stand alone in the gymnastics spotlight. The thought of what is next is unsettling.
Biles said, "We almost feel like all of our life and social skills [have been put] aside to be good at one thing, and then you put us in the real world, and we're just like, lost."
The thought of life after sport’s glory can be depressing. Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, considered suicide following his success at the 2012 London Olympics.
I’m guessing you’d like to be the greatest of all time at something. But you don’t have the ability or will to accomplish it.
Even if you did, you’d discover what Simone Biles, Michael Phelps, and others have. Being the greatest of all time doesn’t satisfy you.
Real peace, joy, and contentment require turning the desire for greatness on its head.
Success isn’t about making a name for yourself. It’s about completing God’s purpose for your life.
It’s about bringing Him the glory He deserves. "I’m the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols” (Isaiah 42:8).
Jesus is the greatest of all time. He is supreme in all things (Colossians 1:18). God created you to worship, serve, and give Him glory (Revelation 14:7). People worshipping, serving, and glorifying you won’t satisfy you.
How does the pursuit of personal glory hinder your purpose?
Read 1 Corinthians 2.
136 Are You Broken?
Who needs a wrecked car, a cell phone that flunked swimming lessons, or a worn-out windshield wiper blade? You throw away broken things.
Surprisingly, God uses broken things in his unfolding plan. He transforms stone into food-supplying soil. He enriches that rock dust using fungi and bacteria to break down dead vegetation. He uses the broken light of a rainbow to remind you of His covenant to never again destroy life on earth with a colossal flood (Genesis 9:13).
Gideon and his three hundred men followed His plan and broke pitchers. He used the resulting light to cause their enemies to flee (Judges 7).
Jesus fed 20,000 people, including women and children, with five broken barley loaves and two fish from a boy’s lunch. In the youth’s hands, lunch was a meal for one.
In Jesus’ hands, it became a meal for a multitude. Twelve baskets of broken barley loaves were the leftovers after everyone had eaten (John 6:1–14).
A woman broke a container of precious ointment to anoint Jesus. He commended her (Matthew 26).
God used the broken body of His Son on Golgotha. It brings salvation to everyone who trusts its adequacy to pay sin’s penalty.
You celebrate this salvation when you participate in the Lord’s Supper. “And when he had given thanks, he [Jesus] broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24 NIV).
God uses broken men and women. They’re humble, dependent, yielded to Him, and no longer filled up with themselves and their interests.
He uses contrite, broken, weak vessels. He empowers them with His Spirit. He perfects His strength in their broken places (2 Corinthians 12:9). Their light shines (Matthew 5:16). He gets the glory.
How has God used your brokenness to bring glory to Himself?
Read 1 Corinthians 3.
137 Humble Boldness
Can you be both humble and bold? Do you have to choose one or the other? Pairing humility and boldness is unexpected.
It’s like an Olympic swimmer who’s afraid of water! An online resource lists boldness as the opposite of humility.1
You rarely pair humility with boldness. That’s because you don’t understand biblical humility. Humility is the fluttering flag of freedom.
It’s found in the gentle land where self-centeredness, pride, and belittling oneself are aliens. Humility isn’t criticizing and diminishing yourself. It’s forgetting yourself.
Boldness speaks the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). It acts self-sacrificially when self-focused fear begs you to do nothing.
I heard Pastor Edmund Chan speak at a gathering of pastors. He was “humble boldness” in the flesh. He wasn’t a dynamic speaker, but his words were like arrows. His character was the bow.
Humbly, he spoke hard truths in love to us pastors. Humble boldness is a vital dimension of spiritual maturity.
Jesus was both humble and bold. He described Himself as humble in heart (Matthew 11:29). He humbled Himself to die on the cross (Philippians 2:8).
He spoke the truth boldly during His ministry, even when His message offended the religious leaders of His day and made them want to arrest Him.
They recognized He spoke the parable of the tenants against them (Mark 12:12). He drove out those who were buying and selling in the temple courts.
He upset the tables of the money changers. He toppled the benches of those selling doves (Matthew 21:12).
Spirit-filled boldness was characteristic of Jesus’ humble followers (Acts 4:31, 9:28, 13:46, 14:3, 19:8, 28:31, 2 Corinthians 3:12).
Humility and boldness kiss in 2 Corinthians 10:1 ( NIV): “By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away!”
The mature believer is both humble and bold. Both are the fruit of denying yourself (Luke 9:23). I need more of both. How about you?
How could more humility and boldness help you bear much fruit that will remain? Read 1 Corinthians 4.
138 Draining the Pride Pan
I ran a 600-yard race at a junior high track meet. I reached the home stretch. Suddenly, I realized only one runner was ahead of me.
I strained to pass him and did. My knees began to buckle with every stride. Somehow, I didn’t fall. I maintained my slight lead. I crossed the finish line first.
I remember raising both arms in a kind of touchdown signal. That was my first, last, and only victory on the track! I’m not criticizing celebrating victories. But what’s the unseen force behind raising both arms?
That force has reemerged repeatedly. It lusts for the spotlight on life’s stage. It single-mindedly seeks to enthrone me and dethrone all competitors.
It focuses my resources on that end. It cooperates with others who can help me until they can’t.
Like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, and Henry Ford, it seeks to crush any who threaten its total domination. It causes interpersonal conflict in spades.
Self-centered pride is a venomous species. It strikes everyone who interferes with its self-exaltation. It wants to be God. It lives in all of us.
Self-centered pride’s drain plug is gratitude. It turns your focus away from yourself.
Be thankful in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Such behavior recognizes a God-centered universe. Pointing to and looking toward heaven after a victory acknowledges your thankfulness to God.
He won’t share His glory with another (Isaiah 42:8). Everything you have comes from Him (1 Chronicles 29:14). Allow God to be God in your life. Give Him the gratitude and credit He deserves.
Feeling superior to others demonstrates pride. In what areas of your life does that attitude reign? Read 1 Corinthians 5.