James 4:10

NIV: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

The Message: Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet.

This is a admonition to remember exactly who we are in the overall scale of things.  We are men and women, created by God, the Creator of all things seen and unseen, in the earth and heaven above.  We need to get on our knees more, to be less full of our own self importance but full of the love and grace of God, to let His glory shine through all that we do, not our own feelings of self worth.

So it is a case of getting things into perspective, of realising that we are so minuscule, so unimportant by comparison to God that we are really not worth considering.  Yet God in all his graciousness and mercy has chosen to love us, each and every one of us, no matter who we are or what we have done. 

Psalm 8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. (KJV)

Imagine that!  It doesn't matter who we are, what our position in society is, whether we have a high powered job, a menial, low paid job,  or even no job at all.  We can have pots of money, or no money at all, we can be the most hardened criminal or the person who always obeys each and every rule to the nth degree.  We can be totally full of pride and be self centred, not caring about anybody else, or we can be the equivalent of Mother Theresa to those in need.  Whoever and whatever we are, whatever we have done, good or bad, God loves each and every one of us. 

The Father of all mankind, the one who created the heavens and earth, fish and fowl, plants and trees, who put the stars in the sky, the planets in their orbits, He is the one who chose to love each and every one of us.  He is so great, so awesome, so powerful, so amazing, so majestic, so full of authority and power, with dominion over everything, the one for whom nothing is impossible, and yet, from all the things He could do, He chose to create us, to give us life, and to love us. 

It's a case of looking at things in perspective, seeing just how mighty and awesome God is in comparison to us.  How He could and would never do anything bad, yet look at what each one of us does every day - lying, cheating, committing adultery, losing our tempers, being selfish and self centred, having no thought or care for anyone else…. the list goes on and is never ending of all the mean and rotten things we each do. 

When I think of the majesty of God, of all that He is, and has done, and just how much He loves me, I am in awe, absolute awe.  For who am  that God should so love me?  Who is man, that God should have created the earth for us to live in? 

No wonder James tells us to humble ourselves.  For it is only by humbling ourselves we can truly appreciate who God is and He has done, all that He can do, for He is worthy to receive the honour, the power and the glory.   For when  we humble ourselves, we are not putting our self first, our wants our needs, thinking of ourselves as more important than we really are.  It is easy to become full of our own self importance, filled with a sense of our own worth.  After all, we spent all those years at college gaining those qualifications, or all that time in that job learning all those essential skills that others struggle to grasp.  We have a nice house, paid for with the work of our hands, a loving family.  Maybe we have a successful and growing ministry, or are a gifted prophet that people look up to and respect, or maybe we have a position of standing in the community, we are respected by the townspeople and when we talk, others listen.

It is so easy to become filled with self importance and when we do this, where is God?  We end up pushing him to one side as we think more highly of ourselves than we should and God ends up being totally ignored. 

Obviously, this doesn't happen overnight, we are not humble one day and proud and conceited the next.  But how often do we do something and feel pleased because we did a good job, especially if it is something that others were having problems with?  What about if we do something and it is as fi we were born to do it?  Maybe we are a natural speaker and we can really inspire those to whom we are speaking.  Perhaps we are able to pray such powerful prayers others are humbled and in awe of our capabilities.  Or maybe we are a gifted teacher and can explain the most intricate of problems in such a way that everyone can understand. 

But who gave us the ability to speak in public clearly and concisely, the gift of intercession, the skill of being able to explain things to others without making them feel like an idiot?  All gifts come from God, and He is the one who deserves the praise, the reward, not us, for all we are doing is using something that He gave us.

We need to keep things in perspective, not get too big for our own boots and to humble ourselves before the Lord, and then He will lift us up.