Humility

This might get deep. The other day I was spending some quality time with God (which was very much needed) and I felt really convicted. Pride is an issue that I struggle with a lot. I think many of us could agree that it is definitely a tool used by the enemy in our lives to put a wedge between us and God. I was prompted to read in Jeremiah 29. Verses 11-14 really stuck out to me. As I read them I felt God calling to me from the Word. He has plans for me. He wants to give me a hope and a future. If only I will continue to seek Him with all of my heart then I will find Him. After digesting these verses I journaled, "Sometimes I shrink back from what God has called me to. I shrink back because I don't think He is really calling me...I don't feel capable. Well, if God is really calling me to something then I need to step up and do it. Because if I don't, He'll call someone else. The cry of my heart is to serve Him which means that I need to serve Him by doing what He says, what He calls me to...."
This doesn't stop here. Then I picked up the book Drawing Near by John Bevere. The chapter was on humility. It talked about the three aspects of humility: obedience, dependence and one's view of oneself. All three hit right at home, but the one that really hit me hard was dependence. In it, Bevere used the example of Joshua and Caleb entering the promised land and encouraging the Israelites that they can take the land after all the other elders were afraid. I felt like I tend to be one of the other elders. I'm a realist. Too much of one. Instead of doing what God has called me to (knowing full well that all things are possible through Him) I look at my own abilities and situation and say, "surely this is not what God is asking me to do." [see excerpt from journal above] I almost feel humble when I discredit myself. However, that is not true humility. True humility is recognizing God's directives as better than our own (obedience), following through even though we don't understand (dependence) and knowing full well that on our own, apart from Him, we could never accomplish it but through Him we are more than conquerers (view of oneself). That is true humility. When David went to the battlefield to meet his brothers they called him arrogant for calling them out for hiding from Goliath (2 Samuel 17:28). David was considered arrogant! What did he do? He went in the power of God and killed the giant. God lifts up the humble. He exalts those who are humble and brings down the prideful. I'll end with a quote from Drawing Near (pg 133):
Keep in mind, Scripture shows repeatedly the dwelling place of God is the high places, and the dwelling place of demonic forces is the lower parts. You will see over and over throughout Scripture pride and rebellion associated with the low, and humility and the fear of the Lord with the high. To be lifted up is to dwell with God in intimacy!