Topic: Keep Yourself Humble [Friday April
17, 2015]
Memorise : Humble yourselves therefore
under the mighty hand of God, that he may
exalt you in due time: - 1 Peter 5:6
Read: 1 Samuel 15:17-19
17 And Samuel said, When thou wast little
in thine own sight, wast thou not made the
head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD
anointed thee king over Israel?
18 And the LORD sent thee on a journey,
and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners
the Amalekites, and fight against them until
they be consumed.
19 Wherefore then didst thou not obey the
voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the
spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the
LORD?
Bible in One Year: Joshua 19:40-21:45,
Matthew 22:15-46
MESSAGE:
Several years ago, I was on a visit to a
parish of our church in Ilesha (a town in
southwest Nigeria) on the same day that a
Bible Study service was to take place.
Because I wanted to be blessed, I sat down
in the congregation waiting for the Bible
Study teacher to commence the lesson for
the day. However, an overzealous usher
announced that I was around, and so the
Bible Study teacher refused to teach while I
was sitting in the congregation. When he
insisted, I offered to interpret the message
for him. In spite of this, he still would not
teach. I then ordered, “As the General
Overseer, I command you to teach.” Not
wanting to disobey me, he started teaching,
though he was uncomfortable having me
as his interpreter. It was a humorous scene,
but we had a wonderful time.
One great undoing of present-day minister
is pride. Humility can be discerned from
your relationship with your superiors and
subordinates. When you respect your
subordinates as though they were your
superiors, you are beginning to learn the
principles of a humble life. There is nothing
good that can come out of arrogance and
pride: only destruction.
Some people are humble when their
ministry is still modest, but the moment
they gain publicity and popularity, they
become so proud and see themselves as
infallible. The same Saul that was hiding
when he was being made king started
disobeying God without remorse when he
became settled.
Do you know that a simple “I am sorry,
Lord” from Eli could have saved him from
being rejected and destroyed by God?
Instead, his response to the situation at
hand showed that he was not bothered
about God’s judgement ( 1 Samuel 3:18 ).
Rather than asking for God to show mercy,
he told God to “do as He pleases.” May God
not “do as He pleases” in your life in Jesus’
Name. If God is to do as He pleases,
nobody will be able to stand ( Psalm 130:3 ).
When you clothe yourself with humility,
your life becomes blessed and favoured
( James 4:6&10 ), and you become a
channel of blessing to everyone around
you. Jesus Christ, our Master and King,
humbled Himself to die a shameful death
( Philippians 2:8 ).
Let the mind of Christ be
in you always. He made himself of no
reputation. He took the posture of a
servant through the spirit of humility. It is
against this backdrop that God decided to
exalt Him highly and gave Him a Name that
is above every other name.
Pride usually
goes before a fall. Pride is excessive self-
esteem. It brings about the misconception
that one is better than others. This is
dangerous because God is the only one
who can help you in the fulfilment of your
destiny. With humility, you can conquer the
world.
Key Point: It is better for you to humble
yourself than for God to humble you.
Open Heavens Daily Devotional written by
Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer
of the Redeemed Christian Church of God,
one of the largest evangelical church in the
world and also the President of Christ the
Redeemer’s Ministries.
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