A Place Of Humility

 “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” Luke 18:13

When you examine the character of Christ you will find every desirable virtue.  Love, compassion, courage, discernment, and of course humility.  Humility is essential to the Christian.  We must have it to be converted, and to be sanctified.  We must keep it in our walk with Christ, all the way to heaven.  At some point, in order to make it to heaven, one must say “I am wrong.”  

The scripture says that “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” (2 Cor 7:10) When the Holy Ghost convicts and convinces you that you are a sinner, it is an act of grace.  God’s grace has led you to the point where you understand that you are wrong and must change.  You have reached a wonderful revelation; a revelation that you are lost.  For certain, many have felt conviction from God, and reasoned themselves away from it.  Perhaps it is because they were unwilling to admit that they were wrong. Herein is the ugliness of pride revealed.  When you are so confident in your strength and the reasoning of your own mind that you are unwilling to listen to the counsel of God; the work of repentance will be forever lost to you.  There are far more who will go to hell because of pride than because of drinking, rioting, and such like.  There are many who sit in a church dressed in the finest clothes, driving the best cars, convinced they are righteous; and  because of pride they cannot see, or rather are unwilling to look, at the true state of their soul.  Unwilling or unable to “examine themselves to see if they are in the faith or not.”  Pride will blind the eyes to the path of God and blind the mind to the counsel of God; pride will condemn the soul in sin.  The scripture says “let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.”  That tells me, all you have to do to be wicked is want your way over God’s.  Friend, we stand in constant need of humility.  The publican did not know much, but he knew humility.  Humility carried him closer to the heart of Christ than learning or lineage.  Humility met with mercy brought pardon.  Pardon for sin, pardon from the Savior.   

When you decide to follow Jesus,  repent and are sanctified by the Holy Ghost it does not leave a bitter taste in your mouth.  It does not bring turmoil or bondage.  Far from it; it brings liberty.  It takes the pressure off of you and allows you to live in fellowship with God the Father.  Christ will cleanse you from sin, and sanctify you whole.  He can change your heart and life.  He can bring you into every desirable virtue he himself embodied.  This cannot begin unless one finds a place of humility and turns from their way.