And He will Lift You Up

Humble yourself... Part One

Most of us know the verse (James 4:10), and some of us know the old youth-camp song:

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, (echo & repeat)

And He will lift you up, higher and higher, and He will lift you up.

(by Bob Hudson; © 1978 Maranatha! Music)

They fit with a spiritual posture that pursues humility and is always critical of pride. We sang the song, and recite the verse to remind us that before God we cannot stand on our own. Both the song and the verse remind us that in this world where self-promotion is the key to success, that the Kingdom of God doesn't work that way.

God sees us and knows us. No matter how well we might fool others with how amazing we are--at least at certain things--God knows our hearts; He knows all the ways we fall short. The only honest way to go to God is in humility. 

From our side, we recognize God's majesty, His holiness, His awesome power, His perfect justice. We see that He is "wholly other:" beyond our full comprehension, more than we can ever know or imagine. In the presence of His infinite greatness, our finitude and brokenness properly bows in humility before Him. 

Such a posture, such humility is foreign to North American culture, where we bow to no one. We stand on our own two feet and look in the eye whomever might cross our path. We take pride in ourselves, in our achievements, our accomplishments, and even if we have no notable achievements or accomplishments, we still consider ourselves great people of infinite value, and don't you dare make me believe any different. Lack of self-worth is often considered a direct cause of so many psychological and relational problems; believe in yourself and your life will be better.

But from Jesus (see Luke 14:11, for example), and from James, and from Peter (1Peter 5:6), as well as from the Psalms (Psalm 18:27), Proverbs (Proverbs 29:23),  and elsewhere, that God prefers the humble to the arrogant. "God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble" (James 4:6).

So far, so good.

The Second Half of the Verse

In our zeal to pursue humility, and perhaps in reaction to our culture, we really prefer the first half of the verse (James 4:10), to the second. Those of us who have been in the faith for a while, have been acculturated to humble ourselves, but not to let Him lift us up - and if He does, to make sure we get back down as quickly as possible.

Did you get that?

The verse has two parts, as do the other verses I cited above. The first part is that we humble ourselves, the second part is that He lifts us up. Let me suggest that not only do we prefer the first part of the verse, we often actually resist God's efforts to do the second part: lift us up.

As I was preaching on Galatians 6:4 this week, I brought up that point. This verse is really shocking, if we are of a mind to focus exclusively on humbling ourselves before God. The verse says this: "Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else."  

Many of us would read the first part of that verse and understand that by testing our own actions, we ought to be looking for more ways to humble ourselves before God by finding all those things that fell short. Interestingly this particular word for test in the Greek New Testament (δοκιμάζω: dokimazo) is almost always used to find out what is right or good about something, not what's wrong with it! I find that fascinating all by itself. How often do we look at ourselves to find out what's going right. How do we look at others, the church, our denomination or movement that way?

What is even more shocking to the "humility-minded" is what Paul says the outcome of such testing will be: "Then they can take pride in themselves alone..." Huh? Did Paul just say that? 

Yep.

It's true that in context Paul is saying more than that. He's talking about not comparing ourselves with others, and probably the temptation (in verse 1) to prideful comparison when restoring a fallen member. Yet, Paul's suggested remedy to prideful comparison is not to remind the Galatians to be more humble, but to find their pride elsewhere--namely in themselves. (Does this seems strange to you too?) He did say "Don't think you're something, you're not" (my paraphrase of Galatians 4:3), but then he goes on to tell us to take pride in who we are. 

Let's unpack that a bit.

If we are of the sort that pursues humility before God as a high value (as we should, IMHO), we would also need to be the sort that would receive without questioning God's response to us, and what God is doing in and among us. True humility would not try to wrestle the "lifting up" part out of God's hands, but rather humbly accept being lifted up. If we kneel as we go before God and He takes our hand and lifts us to our feet, I would assume that He intends for us to stand. True humility would not refuse the honor God gives us.

If you have been a believer for a while and therefore have the Holy Spirit in you, He has been working on producing His fruit in you (Galatians 5:22-23), and has been in the process of sanctifying you from day one. Has He made any progress in you? I trust that He has. He's good at His job! But do you see what He's done in you? Can you see how you are a better, more fruitful, more holy person than you used to be? If not, there's something wrong: stop refusing to cooperate with the Spirit's work in you! On the other hand, if there is progress, praise the Lord! Celebrate what He has done! No matter how much farther you have to go, you've come a long way already! Find satisfaction in that. Find pleasure in that. 

Conceit or arrogance compares itself to others. The Pharisee praying in Jesus' parable, prays arrogantly, comparing himself to tax collector (Luke 18:9-14). But don't forget the tax collector, who humbled himself, went away exalted (v.14). Paul says in this verse don't compare yourselves to others, but look at yourself; compare yourself to yourself and take pride in how far God has taken you! He has lifted you up so stand proudly where He is standing you!

Self-hatred also compares itself to others. If we're more prone to feeling bad about ourselves, or self-degradation has become the accent of our spiritual life, then we're more likely to compare ourselves with others negatively. It's not hard to find people who are better than we are at certain things - particularly things we think are important. Someone prays more, or more fervently; reads their Bible more, or more knowledgeably; has more self-control; is more loving; seems to have more faith through difficulties - and so on. I have two words for such a practice: Stop it!

Take a look at yourself today. Get a good mirror, not one that merely exposes your flaws, but one that shows you what God has done and is doing in you. Then you can take pride in yourself with no need to compare yourself to anyone else.

Don't deny it; celebrate it! God is at work doing amazing things in you! Me too!