Worship & Humility

Are you selfish? Do you ever lie? Have you ever hurt or attacked someone physically, emotionally, or financially? Do you struggle with lust after money, power, material things, or women? It kills me to admit it publicly, but I fail in all of these areas. Why do I fail? Because I am prideful, and I believe that I deserve to satisfy myself and fulfill the lusts of my flesh immediately. I sin and fail because I think that God's Biblical laws are more guidelines really, and I know better than God, and I can choose to obey them at my discretion. I, I, I... the point is this, I am prideful and I am not humble.

I know how to perform a humble act, but I find it nearly impossible to actually be humble even in that moment. Humilty is something I strive for and never seem to attain. It is easy to write about humility but nearly impossible to achieve it. This brings me to Psalm 51: 16-17, the theme of this site, because the truth is that humility is something that can only be achieved before God and by the grace of God. What is true humility?

Humility begins and ends with "a broken and contrite heart" before God. Pridefullly I often try to "hide" my sin from friends, family, myself, and ultimately God. I might do this through a lack of prayerful confession, a lack of accountability, or through surfaceful service at church via the giving of my time, money, or physical resources. I have also witnessed many who think that it is ok to hold onto an area of sin in their lives so long as they give more money, or more of their time to the church or the poor. This is a temptation that we all face every year and this is totally wrong.

Psalm 51 tells us that God does not want our "sacrifices", our money, our time, or anything from us until we humbly come before Him in confession and repentence - until we are broken before Him and His Word. The scriptures are very clear that this requires confession and repentence - a willingness to do whatever it takes to remove the sin. That is why accountability is so helpful. It is a practical ramification of repentence - a deep and earnest desire to have someone come along beside you and encourage you towards righteousness by whatever means necessary.

My friends, I have found Psalms 139: 23-24 to be exceedingly helpful in my ongoing attempts at humilty before our Lord and savior.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"

The worship of God begins and ends with humility before God. He needs nothing from us for He is The Creator, the King of Kings, and the Almight Sovereign. Let it be our prayer that we can continually submit ourselves broken hearted before Him. May it be our first sacrifice, our first offering, the worship theme of our lives.