True Humility is Worship

It is safe to say that most everyone has heard at least once about the importance of being humble. You may have read it in the Bible, or heard a pastor preach on it. You may have been taught it by your parents, or even learned it through a difficult life experience.

Yet in my discussions with many people, I have noticed that the common idea of humility is not what the Bible definition of humility actually is. We tend to think of being humble as having a low opinion of ourselves, or self-debasement… but as you may have already guessed from the title of this message, God has something different and something much better in mind when He speaks of humility. This is what we will be looking at today.

My friends, if you have been trying to “make yourself more humble” through putting yourself down or always thinking the lowest of yourself, let me just tell you right now: STOP!

Doing that is not humility, and it is not what God wants for you. It is the job of the enemy to crush you and to make you feel lower than dirt; you might even have some well-meaning but misguided friends and family telling you that you are doing the right thing by lowering yourself in that manner; but it is not correct.

The Bible, God’s living Word to us, tells us what true humility is in simple words, and when you read it, the truth of God will break the bondage of self-debasement in your life today. Let’s read Proverbs 15:33:

“The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”

The first thing that we must understand is that whenever we read the phrase “the fear of the LORD” in the Bible, it is not the kind of fear that we think; it is not being afraid of God, but worshiping Him.

You see, in Matthew 4:10, Jesus quoted from another well known scripture verse in the Bible, and when He encountered the word fear, Jesus translated it as worship. So we have the proper translation of fear from the One who actually wrote the book to begin with. To fear God, is to worship Him.

Understanding that, we see another beneficial secret being revealed to us in this verse, and that is to worship God brings to us the instruction (the learning and guidance) of wisdom. If you have been seeking wisdom and have been finding it elusive, go back to the beginning and start worshiping God. Wisdom is joined together with worship, and where worship is, wisdom will be drawn to it.

Now we come to our main topic today: true humility. You may have noticed that humility and honor are mentioned in this very same verse along with wisdom and worship, but you may be wondering how it all fits together. Here’s how: The key is in realizing what worship itself actually is. Worship is putting God in His rightful place, worship is making God bigger than everything else in your life – including yourself.

Please hear me very clearly on this: The world has it backwards. They try to lower themselves down to nothingness, and they call that humility. True humility is not lowering yourself, but making God bigger than everything else.

My friends, as you worship God, as you see His greatness, as you put Him in His rightful place as the head of your life, He gets bigger and everything else gets smaller by comparison. In this way effortless humility is produced without you having to debase yourself. In-fact you will receive honor the scripture says!

The truth of the Bible is so much better than our worldly human ideas. As we see more of what God’s word actually says, we can worship Him all the more, and be even more blessed as we receive more of His truth.

I pray that this word has prospered you, and continues to prosper you as you see more of the glorious truth of what Jesus has done for you.