APRIL 12, Luke 18:9-14

In the Bible, meekness is usually emphasised as submissiveness toward God, for if we can be meek toward God and deny ourselves, we would learn to be meek toward men. As directed toward God, meekness and humility require us to do the following:

Recognise our sinfulness. We see that the Pharisee in the parable trusted in himself that he was righteous. He prayed for himself, thanking God he was better than other people. Take note of the Pharisee’s exaltation of self and his failure to see his own sins. The publican (a job that was scorned among the Jews in those days), on the other hand, pleaded for mercy, admitting he was a sinner. If we say we have not sinned, we are liars. We are all sinners, and often need forgiveness. We all deserve to be punished for our sins. We have hope of salvation only by God’s gracious willingness to forgive. We are no better than the Pharisee or the publican, in the sense that we all have sinned, but we must do better than the Pharisee and recognise our own sinfulness.

Depend on God. Our physical blessings do not come from our own power and might, but from God. All good things come from God. We must appreciate how weak we would be without Him. This leads us to depend on God for all our needs. In turn, we then appreciate and give glory to Him, rather than exalt ourselves.

Accept God’s will for us in our lives. A meek and humble person will endure persecution or hardships without rebelling against God or doubting His wisdom. Such a person has understood that God has chosen to allow the persecution or hardships to happen to him with good purposes. Facing hardships that we alone cannot deal with helps make us humble - we would see our weakness and then turn to God for help. This helps us appreciate God and see our need for Him. This does not however mean that we should blame God for causing all the problems, or that we would only have problems when we sin. Sometimes our problems are caused by our own sins. Other times we have not sinned but, just as in the case of Job, God allows Satan to bring hardships upon us. Satan is ultimately responsible for the existence of troubles, but God uses these troubles to make us humble

Thought: One who exalts himself will be made low; one who humbles himself will be exalted!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, may I learn to be meek and humble always. Please help me to submit to your will. This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.