Years ago a friend of mine was struggling in his restaurant business due to some poor decisions that he had made. Upon asking for my advice, God revealed to me in a vision one day exactly what my friend needed to do in order to reverse the situation and save his company. Unfortunately, the first step required operating in a great deal of humility toward his family in order to carry out (no pun intended), but the man was sadly unwilling to comply and in time ended up losing his store and ruined his relationship with his family. I truly believe if he had responded differently, much of this could have been avoided.
The Bible tells the story of another man who was in danger of losing, not just his business, but his entire kingdom due to a lapse of judgment. This man’s name was David.
After conducting a secret affair with a married woman, David tried to cover up his initial moral lapse in judgment by having her husband killed on the battlefield. With each poor choice, David’s sin became compounded; lust, sexual sin, murder, and now deception. God then revealed his sin to the prophet Nathan and as a result the prophet warned David of God’s judgment and anger against him. But David’s response was anything but ordinary.
With a seemingly contrite and repentant heart, David confesses, “I have sinned against the Lord.” It was a simple sentence, but it demonstrated his heart for God. As such, God spared David’s life and restored his place on the throne of Israel and Judah. His deliverance was rooted in humility.
Thankfully today, as New Covenant believers, we possess an even greater covenant than David did. Through the Cross, Christ bore in his body the penalty for sin, and we are now (as believers) no longer in danger of God’s judgment, but this doesn’t excuse the need for humility, nor strip it of its power. In fact, humility is just as powerful today as it was for David. Like my friend above, humility can make the difference between experiencing God’s deliverance or falling back into the fruit of our own efforts and works.
Humility offers a simple path to embracing God’s attitude and opinions, and acknowledging that as people, we don’t have it all together. In the end, it’s one of the most empowering tools that we possess in the kingdom. In fact, humility is the key to our salvation. Although salvation is offered to us, by grace through faith, it takes humility to receive it in the first place. Only when our heart is humble can we acknowledge our need for a Savior.
Is God speaking to you today? Is your heart soft enough to listen and humbly obey?
