Living On My Knees

It’s amazing the things your
heart can learn if only you’d open it a little to grow.

I’ve been walking with Christ almost my whole life, yet my
heart has never stopped growing. There have been times where I’ve slowed the
process down with my stubbornness or pride. But God is God and He gets the
message through to me in the end…

Lately, as I’ve mentioned in a previous blog, He’s been
trying to teach me about humbleness. It’s an interesting one to learn. Not
because I’m resistant to it, but because I’m not quite sure how to actually
learn it. How do you learn to be humble? There are verses all throughout the
Bible that mention humbleness; how God will give grace to the humble, how God
will save those who are humble, how He crowns the humble, how He esteems the
humble. He commands us to “be completely humble and gentle,” “to humble
ourselves before Him and He will lift us up,” “to humble ourselves under God’s
mighty hand, that he may lift us up in due time.” But I don’t know exactly what it looks like all the time.

I know a one quality of a humble person is they always put
themselves last. But even in trying to be humble, I think pride can seep in
when you refuse to ever not be last.
I know another one comes into play when someone compliments you and you try not
to make what they’re complimenting on a big deal. But even in that, where do
you draw the line between being humble and refusing a compliment? Then of course there’s the whole servant’s heart factor. But that can turn into having a heart like Martha, when all Jesus really wants is a heart like Mary.

I can try as best I can to be humble, however that looks,
and I know God will delight in it because He sees my heart. But it hit me
yesterday that in some cases, I don’t have to try to be humble…humility will fall on me all by itself. We were at
one of our ministry locations finishing up teachings. Before we ended for the
day, the people were asked to give a few testimonies about how ICM has helped
them and changed their lifestyles. A woman stood up and started talking. She
was speaking in her language, so I couldn’t understand her. I leaned over to
ask Christine, our ICM staff member, to translate. She said that the woman had
lost her husband a few months back, and had been worried about how she was
going to take care of her family and had been worried about what was going to
happen to them. Then she started attending the ICM teachings and Bible studies.
She gave her life to Christ and also started applying what ICM was teaching
her. Her life was changed drastically. She said that she now knows she’s not
alone, and it gives her hope. The next woman stood up and again, I asked
Christine to translate. This woman started attending the ICM teachings just so
she could receive the rice that they pass out at the end. But eventually, she
couldn’t deny her heart any longer, and she accepted Christ as her Lord and
Savior. She started talking about how much He’s taken care of her and her family,
how through all the trials and pain she’s experienced, she knows that He’s been
there, and that He’ll always be there to take care of her. She knows her Lord
and His faithfulness and she thanks Him everyday for the life that she has.