Humbled...or Humiliated?

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

James 4:10 served as a centerpiece of my last post, and serves as the foundation of everything I'm going to write here.  Here's the problem: that word 'humbled' is in there.

Earlier in the chapter, James quotes Proverbs (3:34, to be exact), and says,  "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6).  Incidentally (but certainly not coincidentally), Peter quotes the same passage in 1Pet 5:5, right before he tells us to - you guessed it - humble ourselves.

And let's not forget Jesus (like we would).  In Mt. 23:12, he fumes: "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."  That's Jesus, in the middle of laying some brutal truth on everyone in Jerusalem.  Sounds bad, and the Pharisees would certainly agree; in fact, after he was done tearing them apart - humbling them, if you will - they began to plot His assassination in earnest.  So humbling is bad, right?

Not if you're the one doing the humbling!  Humbling yourself doesn't mean humiliating yourself.  Humility is born of truth, and your realization and acceptance of it.  When you realize who God is (as much as you can realize, anyway), who you are, and how you stack up, humility is a natural response.

I really like the way the Amplified Bible breaks down Mt. 23:12, because it points out the difference between being humbled and being humble.  When you're humbled, you're brought low, like Jesus did the Pharisees.  He cast a cruel, but true, light on them and their hearts; for them, it had to have been humiliating.  However, Jesus' message for us was wonderfully uplifting: if you "have a modest opinion of yourself and act accordingly", you'll be exalted.

God exalted Joshua (Joshua 4:14).  God exalted David (2 Sam 5:12).  Solomon, too (1 Chron. 29:25).  In Acts 5:31, Peter told the Pharisees that God exalted Jesus, too (like you didn't see that one coming).  And God is going to exalt you.  Pretty great company to be in, isn't it?  Certainly nothing humiliating about it, that's for sure.

Coming to terms with the reality of the situation is the key to humility, and when you've humbled yourself, incredible things begin to happen.  Count on that.

Talk to you soon.