{"id":6352,"date":"2015-03-27T08:10:03","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T12:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/?p=6352"},"modified":"2015-03-31T10:28:10","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T14:28:10","slug":"weekly-wisdom-ephesians-42-humility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/2015\/03\/27\/weekly-wisdom-ephesians-42-humility\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Wisdom &#8211; Ephesians 4:2 | Humility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/lent15_weeklywisdom.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-6127\" src=\"http:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/lent15_weeklywisdom-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"lent15_weeklywisdom\" width=\"560\" height=\"374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/lent15_weeklywisdom-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/lent15_weeklywisdom-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/lent15_weeklywisdom-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I have learned over the years that there is nothing more beautiful than true humility. Unfortunately, it is a quality that is hard to find in this world in this day and age. We live in a culture where\u00a0the proud, the selfish and the self-centered often\u00a0seem to get ahead. Whether unknowingly or not, we often condone or even encourage self-promotion and a &#8220;me first&#8221; attitude as virtues. The Bible clearly says otherwise. Just to quote a few verses:<\/p>\n<div><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Psalm 18:27<\/span><\/div>\n<div>You <strong>save the\u00a0humble<\/strong>\u00a0but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Psalm 138:6<\/span><\/div>\n<div>Though\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0is exalted, he <strong>looks kindly on\u00a0the\u00a0lowly<\/strong>; though lofty, he sees\u00a0them from afar.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Proverbs 3:34<\/span><\/div>\n<div>He mocks proud mockers and <strong>shows favor to the humble<\/strong> and oppressed.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Proverbs 29:23<\/span><\/div>\n<div>Pride brings a person low, but\u00a0<strong>the\u00a0lowly\u00a0in spirit gain honor<\/strong>.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Matthew 18:4<\/span><\/div>\n<div>Therefore, whoever takes\u00a0<strong>the\u00a0lowly\u00a0position of this child is\u00a0the\u00a0greatest <\/strong>in\u00a0the\u00a0kingdom of heaven.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Matthew 19:30<\/span><\/div>\n<div>But many who are first will be last, and many who are <strong>last will be first<\/strong>.<\/div>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nJust as God calls us to be holy, he also calls us to be humble. It says in <strong>Ephesians 4:2<\/strong>, &#8220;Be completely\u00a0humble\u00a0and gentle;\u00a0be\u00a0patient,\u00a0bearing with one another in love.&#8221;\u00a0It never really occurred to me that the God we worship is a humble God until the idea was brought up\u00a0in a bible study with my church\u00a0small group. The word humble seems contradictory to our idea of who God is, the omnipotent, all-knowing, sovereign God. But\u00a0as we see time and time again in the Bible,\u00a0the humble and lowly have a special place in God&#8217;s heart. He favors, looks kindly upon and gives honor to the humble. To those who are haughty and proud, He mocks and brings down. Just as God calls us to be holy because He is holy, God also call us to be humble because He is humble. Jesus says in <strong>Matthew 11: 29<\/strong>, &#8220;Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,\u00a0for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">True humility emanates from within as a natural product of\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">our\u00a0understanding of who\u00a0we\u00a0are in relation to others as a result of\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">our\u00a0relationship with God.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>But what is true humility? How do we become humble? Humility cannot be faked. True humility emanates from within as a natural product of our\u00a0understanding of who we\u00a0are in relation to others as a result of our\u00a0relationship with God. It&#8217;s neither an attitude of inferiority nor of disguised superiority. It&#8217;s just an honest realization\u00a0of who we are and whose we are. A Christian friend\u00a0once told me that in relation to God, we&#8217;re all beggars. And when it comes to Christians and non-Christians, we&#8217;re just beggars telling other beggars where to find food. In God&#8217;s eyes, we&#8217;re all in need of Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Last weekend, I had the opportunity to serve dinner to a group of homeless individuals through a program organized by the <a title=\"South Oakland Shelter\" href=\"http:\/\/www.southoaklandshelter.org\" target=\"_blank\">South Oakland Shelter<\/a> here in Michigan.\u00a0SOS&#8217;s mission is to work to end homelessness by mobilizing interfaith and community resources. They work with several local congregations to provide temporary shelter and meals to individuals who have been displaced from their homes, while also assisting them in finding work so they can get back on their feet.<\/p>\n<p>From our human perspective, it&#8217;s easy for us to think that\u00a0we&#8217;re in a superior position than these individuals and feel good about ourselves for taking time from our busy lives to help them out.\u00a0I didn&#8217;t have much time to get to know these individuals well enough to know their story and how they got to where they are today. It may be true that at this point in time,\u00a0we may be in a position\u00a0to provide them with food and shelter, but I would venture to say\u00a0that they, in turn, are in a position to teach me some invaluable\u00a0life lessons that can only be learned thru experience.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>True humility moves us to care for the well being of others, <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>even before our own.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>The same goes with my experience with short-term mission trips. People have said\u00a0to me, &#8220;It&#8217;s so nice that you&#8217;re sacrificing your time to go help those people.&#8221; To be honest though, I always feel like I take away\u00a0much more from the experience than I could ever offer the people I encounter. Thru my interactions with the people of Kenya and Nicaragua, where I&#8217;ve spent time on missions, they have taught me what it&#8217;s like\u00a0to be content with little and that true joy does not come from having\u00a0material things. They have taught me how to\u00a0pray with urgency and fervor. They have taught me what it&#8217;s like to completely depend on God for everything.<\/p>\n<p>True humility moves us to care for the well being of others, even before our own. It says in <strong>Philippians 2: 3-4<\/strong>, &#8220;Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,\u00a0not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.&#8221; In <strong>John 13:1-17<\/strong>, Jesus shows\u00a0us by\u00a0example when He washes the feet of each of His disciples and tells them to do likewise. We can always look to Jesus and His life to understand and know what it means to be humble. As I shared on last year&#8217;s Good Friday post\u00a0<a title=\"Christ's Humility\" href=\"http:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/2014\/04\/18\/high-on-the-word-christs-humility\/\">here<\/a>, the passage in <strong>Philippians 2:5-8<\/strong> always comes to mind when I think of humility, &#8220;In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature\u00a0God,\u00a0did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;\u00a0rather, he made himself nothing\u00a0by taking the very nature\u00a0of a servant,\u00a0being made in human likeness.\u00a0And being found in appearance as a man,\u00a0he humbled himself,\u00a0by becoming obedient to death\u2014even death on a cross!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you like this post, I would really appreciate it if you could vote for me for Top Mommy Blogs by simply clicking\u00a0<a title=\"Top Mommy Blogs\" href=\"http:\/\/topmommyblogs.com\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. Thanks!!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bloglovin.com\/widget\/bilder\/en\/widget.gif?id=10658125\" alt=\"Follow on Bloglovin\" width=\"150\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"ig-b- ig-b-v-24\" href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/myrosecoloredshades?ref=badge\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/\/badges.instagram.com\/static\/images\/ig-badge-view-24.png\" alt=\"Instagram\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Linking up with these lovelies: Let Your Light Shine with\u00a0<a title=\"Let Your Light Shine Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/madewithzeal.blogspot.com\/2015\/03\/let-your-light-shine-thursday-link-up.html\" target=\"_blank\">Made with Zeal<\/a>\u00a0&amp;\u00a0<a title=\"Let Your Light Shine Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rootedinsalt.com\/2015\/03\/lyls-thursday-link-up-herlightshines-morgan\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rooted in Salt<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Fellowship Fridays Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/christianmommyblogger.com\/ff64_burdens\/\" target=\"_blank\">Fellowship Fridays<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Faith Filled Friday Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.missionalwomen.com\/faith-filled-friday-blog-link-up\" target=\"_blank\">Faith Filled Friday<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Sunday Funday Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.fabfatale.com\/2015\/03\/sunday-funday-easter-brunch-easy-home-makeover-a-100-target-gift-card-giveaway\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sunday Funday<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Soul Survival Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/donnareidland.com\/the-jesus-code-why-are-we-sitting-here-until-we-die-linkup\/\" target=\"_blank\">Soul Survival<\/a>\u00a0| <a title=\"Unite Linkup Party\" href=\"http:\/\/www.richfaithrising.com\/2015\/03\/shatter-the-mirror-intro-and-unite.html\" target=\"_blank\">Unite<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have learned over the years that there is nothing more beautiful than true humility. Unfortunately, it is a quality that is hard to find in this world in this day and age. We live in a culture where\u00a0the proud, &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/2015\/03\/27\/weekly-wisdom-ephesians-42-humility\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Weekly Wisdom - Ephesians 4:2 | Humility http:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ea16-1Es #faith #Jesus #Bible #Lent","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[269,232,737],"tags":[268,950,270,369,951,371,909,273,910,953,952,907],"class_list":["post-6352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-faith-family","category-high-on-the-word-2","tag-bible","tag-ephesians-42","tag-faith-2","tag-god","tag-humble","tag-humility","tag-jesus","tag-lent","tag-scripture","tag-serving-others","tag-the-lowly","tag-weekly-wisdom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ea16-1Es","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6352"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6436,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352\/revisions\/6436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}