“Humility Plays The Leading Role” is August 16’s morning entry from Dr. David Jeremiah’s ‘Turning Points with God: 365 Daily Devotions’. With additional information from me, Jeremiah.
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Matthew 5:5
Outside of the Bible and its original Greek language, “meek” refers to someone who is humble, gentle, yielding, soft, timid, and/or weak. Looking deeper into the Greek words reveal that “meek” means properly temperate, displaying the right blend of force and reserve (gentleness) and avoids unnecessary harshness, yet without compromising or being too slow to use necessary force.
The term “meek” was used a lot for horses (mustangs), it means, to harness the horse’s power from a state of wild independence to one of loyalty so that the horse could be used as the master of the horse intended. This is how a horse was able to sprint full speed into battle.
Biblical meekness refers to exercising God’s strength under His control, not a weakness. The meek do not seek gain for themselves; instead, they hope in the Lord.
If there was ever an example of true humility, it was in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. He understood how important this virtue was to His heavenly Father. In fact, He became God’s demonstration to believers of how humility is more important than ability. You see, God knew that in order for the sins of humanity to be forgiven once and for all, a sacrifice would have to be made. A life would have to be taken in order for our lives to be saved. Now here is where humility plays the leading role: Jesus humbled and limited Himself and came down to humanity’s level in order to permanently atone for all our sins, and it was precisely His humility that allowed God to use Him as the perfect sacrifice.
In the same way, if we desire to be used by God, all we have to do is be humble and allow Him to work through us. Our abilities or lack thereof are of little significance when God is looking for a humble spirit to use. Sometimes being of use to God is a matter of our attitude rather than our aptitude. So let humility play the leading role in your life, and watch as God uses you in ways you never dreamed.
To end, a quote from St. Augustine, “The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.”
