humility

1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.

I think we can have an incomplete understanding of the important concept of humility.  We may think of it as a noble attitude of selflessness, and that is good, but there is more.  Why is it important to be emptied of self?  I think it is so we can be filled with something else.  You might think of humility as "the emptying that fills".  Our nature is to live for self first.  They say that survival is the most basic instinct....personal success may be the second.

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But, if we would desire to be a conduit of the Lord's love in the lives of others, we must place self on the shelf and others as brothers.  Humility preserves all that is uniquely gifted to us individually that we might use those gifts appropriately and effectively to help others and to shine with His light alone.

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Peter says, in the verse just ahead of the one above, "Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

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We are to be humble for purpose...emptied of self that we might be filled with pure motive and a passion for others...emptied of self that we might be filled with God.

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Colossians 3:12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."