God teaches me more about Himself each day. Through His Holy Spirit He guides me into a deeper understanding of His love and His gospel message.
The gospel is a message of humility. I understand this more each day as I study God’s word and walk with Him in obedience.
When Jesus came into our world as a child, He humbled Himself. He set the example, and the tone for His message of forgiveness. It is a message that annihilates our pride – increasingly so, as we walk with Him.
When we come to Jesus, we need to address our pride. Pride wants to tell us that we have a part in saving ourselves. But God is the only One who could make our salvation take place.
Eternal life is a work of God’s Holy Spirit. Our salvation, our redemption, is ALL the plan of our great God. It is His mercy and grace to people who rebelled and rejected Him. It was planned by the Father, enacted by Jesus, and His Spirit imputes His righteousness to us.
As I’ve been considering all of this, I’ve had the following writings come my way:
“Jesus had a better idea. He blessed those who were poor in spirit. He said, “Great blessings belong to those who know they are spiritually in need. God’s kingdom belongs to them” (Matthew 5:3, ERV). When the Lord spoke of being poor in spirit, He meant the opposite of everything that’s summed up in the word pride. Those who are poor in spirit have a proper assessment of who they are without Christ. As the International Children’s Bible puts it: “Those people who know they have great spiritual needs are happy.” When we recognize we are spiritually bankrupt, we’ll understand the wonder of God’s love for us through Christ. We cannot impress anyone, not even ourselves. But Jesus loves us nonetheless, and through Him alone we find the Kingdom of heaven.”
The prophet Isaiah understood what it was to be humble before God: “And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Isaiah 6:5
These verses reveal that we need to recognize we are spiritually bankrupt and need Jesus to change that for us. We cannot, in any way, change that unless God opens our hearts to Him, by giving us eyes to see Him, and to honestly evaluate our sinfulness before Him. We need His restoring and cleansing grace that comes through accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.
I read this in a Turning Point devotion:
“Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest soccer players in the world. Last year at Euro 2024, he missed a penalty shot. He felt he’d let his team and fans down. The great athlete’s face twisted into pain, and he couldn’t keep from weeping. His tears dominated the headlines the next day. If an athlete can weep over a missed shot, shouldn’t we be able to weep over our sins? There are a few occasions in life when we can’t help but cry when we see the mistake we made, the sin we committed, or the harm we did. Matthew 5:4says, in the Amplified Bible, “Blessed [forgiven, refreshed by God’s grace] are those who mourn [over their sins and repent], for they will be comforted [when the burden of sin is lifted].” The closer we come to the Lord, the more sensitive we become to sin in our life. We know we are bankrupt without the Lord, and we mourn our sin. The Lord not only forgives us; He also comforts us.”
Colin S. Smith states it this way: “Spiritual mourning is the godly sorrow that produces repentance, and it is blessed because it leads to life. The more you have of this kind of mourning in your life, the more blessed you will be.”
2 Corinthians 7:10 states: “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 also helps us to understand that we cannot take any claim for any portion of our salvation: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
So often we can have the mentality that we can earn God’s favor. But God doesn’t work that way. Jesus did all the work, on the cross, to secure everlasting life for people.
Please consider this. God’s word tells us that the only way to appease His wrath is to perfectly obey His word. NO ONE CAN DO THAT! Why then, do you think people still expect they can in some way earn God’s favor? We can’t. The sooner we give up that misconception, the sooner we come humbly to God for forgiveness of our sins, and receive His gift of everlasting life.
We need to acknowledge that He alone could atone for our sins. We need to ask Him to be our Lord and Savior.
That is followed up with further changes His Spirit makes in us. His Spirit guides us to understand our pride is a problem. As we cooperate with His Spirit, our pride can be diminished. It is a work God does in us until we pass from this life into life with Him.
Our responsibility is to cooperate with His Spirit, as He convicts us of our sin [all sin stems from pride], and leads us into repentance that transforms our lives. Romans 12:2 states it this way: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
As we obey God, our pride continues to diminish. When we disobey God, we need to remember that our relationship with Him is secure, but the fellowship we experience with Him is disrupted. It is “repaired” through our confession, and subsequent actions that reveal a change of attitude, shown in our behavior – known as repentance.
Micah 6:8 states: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
The following are some definitions for humility:
Cambridge Dictionary: “the feeling or attitude that you have no special importance that makes you better than others; lack of pride”
Online Dictionary: “a modest or low view of one’s own importance”
Some online definitions from a Biblical standpoint are:
“a heart attitude of lowliness, meekness, and being free of self”
“True humility seeks to bring glory and honor to God and looks out for the interests of others.”
Colossians 3:12-14: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
Philippians 2:3-8: 3 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing being the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
How do we view yourselves based upon the above Scriptures? Do we see yourselves through prideful hearts or hearts humbled before God? How willing are we to let God remove more of our pride so that we can “walk humbly” with our amazing God and Creator?
Please contact me at: ButGodCares@gmail.com if you would like to talk about a humbly relationship with God through Jesus.
Living for Jesus, Donna
P.S. If this has helped you, please share it with others!
Note: If the verses for Bible references do not appear when you hover over them, go directly to the website, and they should appear for you. Also, please remember to look at the full context of the verses by reading the complete passage.
Copyright 2025 Donna Shappy All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other – without the prior permission of the author.