Humility 5 of 5

HUMILITY Part 5 of 5
Vineyard Church NW - Jody Burgin


HUMILITY vs. Pride
Recognizing and acknowledging my total dependence upon the Lord and seeking his will for every decision

“I will…”
Give credit to those who have made me successful.
Praise my parents, teachers, mentors and coaches.
Not think more highly of myself than I ought to think.
Take responsibility for all my actions.
Try again after each defeat.
Moses called all the people of Israel together and said, “Listen carefully to all the laws and regulations I am giving you today. Learn them and be sure to obey them!” (Deuteronomy 5:1)

If we are ever through learning, we are through. A humble person is teachable. We either have to go forward or we’ll go backward. We rarely move rapidly upward, but we can go downward very fast. It’s what we learn after we know it all that really matters.

Moses told the Israelites to listen, learn, and obey. Listening is absorbing and accepting information. Learning is understanding the meaning and implications of what has been taught. Obeying is putting into action all that has been absorbed and understood. And I would add, another law of learning is repetition. Absorbing and understanding something over and over again makes action instinctive.

There are so many ways to apply this in our lives. The difference in living and living well is the idea of the repetition of righteousness. We’d learn a lot more and sin a lot less if we repeated the righteous acts, such as the habits of breakthrough living. These habits lead us into vital connection with God and others. And vital connection with God and others increases our fervor to repeat these habits.

A story is told about Socrates holding a young wanna-be’s head underwater and later asking him, “When you were under the water, what was the one thing you wanted more than anything else?”

“I wanted air.”

Then Socrates said, “When you want knowledge and understanding as badly as you wanted air, you won’t have to ask anyone to give it to you.”

King David was as thirsty for God as that young man was desperate for air. “O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).

What would life be like if we were to have the same thirst for God that David had? We would learn all we could about our heavenly Father. As our relationship grew deeper, we would keep discovering new truths and experience barrier free connection with the Almighty. So keep learning, passionately pursue him, and enjoy the result – breakthrough living.

Almighty God, I commit myself to reading and listening to your Word. I ask you to help me understand it through the power of the Holy Spirit. Fill me with your desire to learn and to obey