Pray:
Ask God to orient or reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.
Read:
Psalm 8
“3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? 5 You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 8 the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.”
Understand:
It’s pretty easy for us to feel inconsequential. The world population went over seven billion in 2011. That’s right…seven billion!
Psalm 90:10 says, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.”
You may be thinking, “Okay Jim, I was already feeling pretty small thinking about the mass of humanity. Now you throw in the brevity of life…I feel pretty small right now.” Well, my point is not to make you feel small and insignificant, it’s to direct you to wonder about the greatness of our God!
Read what Tremper Longman has to say in his book, The Cry of the Soul. “We are one of millions, even billions-a grain of sand on a vast seashore, indistinguishable from the mass of humanity. We desire more than feeling lost in the sea of existence. We want to be recognized; we want someone to stand up and take notice of us as a unique individual. And not just for fifteen minutes of fame; we want to join God in a glory that startles even the heavenly host… The problem with these feelings is that, only God can satisfy this hunger… The good news of the Psalms is that the Almighty God of the universe not only knows we exist, He glorifies us. He stoops down to lift us up to the glory in which we were meant to be clothed.”
Longman is talking about a proper view of humility. Think about it… You have been recognized; Jesus Christ stood up and took notice of your uniqueness. Not only that, but Jesus paid the price of your sin and has reconciled you back to God; He has glorified you in Himself! He wants us to recognize our need for Him; this is where our humility comes in to play. It’s where we have to lay down all the things about ourselves that we think can give us meaning and purpose, recognizing that these things fall short. The only thing we’re left to do is trust Christ. When we look to Him in this way, we are humbled.
Apply:
Understand that feelings of humility are not feelings of worthlessness. Humility is a healthy way for us to reorient ourselves back to God, to center ourselves in reality. This “feeling small” also means that we don’t camp out in self-deprecation. A proper view of humility means that we have a proper respect for God. Humility should drive us to the realization that God Himself highly values you and me. We have great value and worth because we bear the stamp of the Creator.
Live:
(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today. KEEP PRAYING THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY.