"Who...?"

It has been a long work week, let me tell you. This morning, I had a 45 minute drive to work, and while most days I can’t wait to get to work and get the job done, this morning I relished the thought of being in the car, alone, for 45 minutes.

Driving time has become a time where God invites me to pray and process my thoughts out loud to Him, or meditate on scripture out loud. I don’t always do this, but when I do, I’m really glad I did.

This morning I was planning to spend the time praying and thinking about a passage of scripture I’ve been memorizing, but instead I landed on a mini passage I just read this morning that had stuck, in spite of how sleepy I was after the long week.

“Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high…” I began to quote. The passage was Psalm 113:5-6. At first, it seemed like an obvious question…. “Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth?”

I said it again. “Who is like the Lord our God…?” Well, no one, I thought. No one is like the Lord our God. Why did I need to go any further? But the question echoed in my head…

“Who is like the Lord our God… who humbles Himself…?” The significance of those last three words stopped me in my mental tracks. 

In a culture where “gods” are the people who can climb the highest, be the best, out talk, outsmart and outdo everyone –or our “gods” are whatever is popular and has the attention of everyone, this goes in the completely opposite direction. Our God isn’t like the other gods out there. Yet He is the only One in the universe who actually deserves to be at the top.

“Who is like the Lord our God…?” The question presses me to think further. The Lord our God is described as One who humbles Himself. Is anyone like Him? Think about it. Are you like Him? Am I like Him?

“Who is like the Lord our God…who humbles Himself..?” Our flesh is diametrically opposed to this very idea. We want the top place.

Let me speak from personal experience….

*In disagreements, my flesh wants the last word. But the right to the last word belongs to God.

*When life spins out of control, my flesh grasps for control. But reality is, God is already in control. I would be taking His place if I took control.

*When something I do goes un-thanked, my flesh wants to tell someone of the good I did. Reality is, God is the only One who is worthy of praise, and His praise of me is all that matters.

*When I can’t understand something happening in my life, my flesh won’t rest until it figures it out. But God already knows all and should be trusted to tell me whenever He wants.

*When I have free time, my flesh wants to indulge and be the center of everything I do. But God is the only One who deserves that kind of attention. Why do I so easily take it from Him?

*When it comes to the future, my flesh wants to dream up the perfect, most comfortable life, filled with self-gratification and pleasure, or it wants to dream up a life of servitude that makes me look good. But God is the only Person that is worthy to choose my life’s outcome, and if I live for me, I kick Him off the throne of my life.

So I pose the question again:

“Who is like the Lord our God ….who humbles Himself…?”

Think about this. God humbles Himself.

My flesh never will humble itself. It fights to be god of my life.

While my flesh fights to be god, the real God humbles Himself.

The cross is a good example of that. Jesus left His heavenly throne to be born in a stable and live among His creation who later spat on His face and crucified Him. Shouldn’t He have come on a white horse, like all the other “heroes” do?

Would you do that? If you were God, would you have even let your creation live once it ate the tree of the garden and called you a liar by disbelieving your words, let alone have patience and love for thousands of years before finally coming to die in their place for crimes that had been committed against you?

This is baffling. Yet we overlook it on a daily basis. God humbles Himself to this day. Proof of it is the fact that He lives in every Christian –humans who sin and make Him look bad.

Who is like Him? Nobody is. 

I left to myself do not humble myself. Neither do you. We are creatures who naturally seek to put ourselves in the best place we can be. Our world is full of cultures made up of people who are fighting to be at the top, or people who are fighting to appear heroic for selfish gain. This is because every person left to himself can only choose selfishness.

True humility looks like Jesus Christ. 

True humility comes from God. True humility in a human is a result of God’s working in that human. See a person taking the lowest place, loving others at his own expense, giving, even when things are stolen from him, returning good for evil, blessing for cursing, prayer for hatred, who rejoices when he suffers, who joyfully serves even when nobody is watching… and you will soon realize that you are looking at a work of Jesus Christ Himself in that person. The two go hand in hand.

God humbles Himself. Who is like Him?

Apart from God, we can never humble ourselves, but if we open up our clenched fists that hold tightly to our rights and present all to Him that gets in the way of His work, He will work in us the ability to "humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God." (1 Peter 5:6)