Today, don’t focus too much on your pride but on the Prince of Peace instead. In so doing so, you’ll receive the spirit of humility.
SHAUNA: Hi, I’m Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Today Joni has a story about one bad dude.
JONI: And maybe you know him well from Scripture. Manasseh, I mean he was one evil guy. Although a leader in Israel, he actually threw infants on the sacrificial grill to appease pagan gods. After Manasseh was captured by the Assyrians, bound in shackles, led away by a hook in his nose to Babylon, something happened. A dramatic change! Humiliated by his circumstances, it says in 2 Chronicles 33:12, “In his distress Manasseh sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.”
You know, we would not want Manasseh’s experience, but we sure do want to be humble. And we can learn a very important lesson from Manasseh when it comes to humbling ourselves. First, like this wayward king, we need to uproot all the "pagan gods" in our lives: Petty resentments, an overstuffed ego, hogging the spotlight, or refusing to give others credit; whining in order to get our way, or manipulating with precisely timed words. These things are all pagan gods that need to be destroyed. And we can do it. And yet when we drive ourselves to our knees for sin's sake, or our sake, or the sake of our marriages or churches; or the sake of friendships or family, we will fail. We’ll fail every time. Because if we're looking for humility, we don't look at ourselves or how greatly we miss the mark, no, we gaze at God. We grieve over our offense to him, and we seek his favor.
Like Manasseh learned, we humble ourselves “before the Lord.” It’s for the Lord’s sake. And it says of Manasseh that he not only humbled himself before the Lord; he humbled himself greatly. I think Manasseh must have had the attitude of James 4:9, where it says, “Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.”
To humble yourself before the Lord is to meditate, and muse, and brood, and consider the Lord and his greatness. Like an old Puritan in “The Valley of Vision” wrote, “Let me never forget that the heinousness of sin lies not so much in the nature of the sin committed, as in the greatness of the person sinned against.”
Oh, by the way, Manasseh was not only forgiven, but he was reinstated as king of Israel. What an incredible example of the enormous extent to which God will go to forgive. But remember that Manasseh humbled himself greatly. So, ponder the greatness of God today. And as you well know, the greatness of God is best displayed at the cross of Christ; for it is there that the Son of God humbled himself greatly. Learn a lesson from Jesus. Watch him. Listen to him groan on your behalf from the cross. Know that it’s your sin that impaled him to that tree. And as you meditate on that, forgive me for saying but, how dare you cling to the very transgressions that caused your Savior to suffer so!
Let that sink in, look at Jesus and you will find yourself becoming slow to speak, quick to listen, thanking bus-boys at restaurants, praying more fervently, pinch-hitting for the toddler praise lady who does diaper duty, showing compassion for the poor, picking up trash on your neighbor’s lawn, and sacrificing an extra hour of sleep in the morning for a more earnest quiet time. All of these things reflect a spirit of humility. So today, may we not focus so much on our pride but on the Prince of Peace. In so doing, we’ll receive the spirit of humility.
© Joni and Friends