Starting Over: The Attitude of a Man of God - Part 1
What do you think is the fundamental attitude of a man or woman of God? What is the lowest common denominator of your attitude that can raise you to the highest heights with God?
St Augustine said, “Humility is first, second and third in Christianity.”
When D. L. Moody was asked, “Mr. Moody, what are the three most important virtues in Christianity?” he replied, “First is humility. Second is humility. And third is humility.”
Like them, I believe that humility is the mother virtue of all virtues. Love is the supreme virtue, but it is born out of humility. There can be no love without humility.
1 Corinthians 13:4 (NKJV) says,
…Love does not parade itself.
Love is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. If I am motivated in this conference to impress you, I can’t love you like I should. If I have inflated ideas of my own importance, or the importance of The Navigators, I can’t love the rest of the Body like I should.
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There can be no love without humility.
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Proverbs 13:10 (KJV) says,
Only by pride cometh contention.
And Matthew Henry says, “Only by humility comes love.” It’s interesting that the degree of love we have for one another will be directly proportionate to the degree of humility we have in our relationships with one another.
Now that needs some thought and digestion. Let me repeat it: the degree of love we have for one another is directly proportionate to the degree of humility we have in our relationships with one another.
Pride
Allow me to digress a little here.
While humility is the mother virtue and gives birth to all other virtues, pride is the mother sin. Where did sin come from?
Lucifer, son of the morning, corrupted himself. He gave birth to sin when he said, “I will ascend … I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” That’s pride, the mother sin, in you and me.
Three of my four kids are just a year and a half apart from each other. When they were younger, we would always pray with those three little ones as we put them to bed. And they would argue: “I want to pray first.” “No, I want to pray first.” “No, I want to pray first.”
That went on day after day, week after week, month after month, and finally Leila got a bright idea. She opened up her Bible and showed them where Jesus said that he that is first shall be last, and he that is last shall be first. She smiled as she thought, “I’ve got that one solved.” And she said, “Now let’s pray.”
“I want to be last.” “No, I want to be last.” “No, I want to be last.”
It didn’t solve a thing.
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The degree of love we have for one another is directly proportionate
to the degree of humility we have in our relationships with one another.
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What’s motivating you in your life and in your ministry? What’s that thing that turns the engine on and gets it in high gear? Is your motivation vertical? Is it “I shall ascend” to be the MAN of God, a leader in a prominent place, looked up to and respected? Are you motivated to climb up to surpass others? It’s all right to compete against the Devil. But what about your co-worker? What about your brother-in-Christ?
Or are you motivated horizontally—just to serve, just to help somebody else?
The way you are motivated is the way you are going to end up. If you are motivated horizontally, great. But if you are motivated vertically, you are just getting up really high for a big fall. When that fall comes, it will be very hard to take. But it will come.
The Kingdom vs. the World
Now why is humility the mother virtue? Let’s look at it a little more closely through the Beatitudes, which describe the character and the “beautiful attitudes” of the citizens of the Kingdom.
The first beatitude is the foundation of all the others. Matthew 5:3 says,
Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Another version says,
Blessed are the poor in spirit for all that is in Heaven is theirs.
How do you get the grace for the other virtues? When you come low, recognising that you are poor, needy and insufficient in yourself. When you have a very low estimation of yourself, but a very high and supreme estimation of the love of God, and the grace that is in Jesus Christ, and all the blessings in heavenly places that are yours in Christ.
This is a direct contradiction to the world’s system. What does the prince of this world say? He says, “I am the author of the pride of life and the love of things. If you follow my system, I’ll give you plenty to be proud of and I’ll give you plenty of things to enjoy.”
The ancient philosophers did not reckon humility and meekness among the virtues. Instead they shunned them and looked down their noses at them because they were worldly and they knew humility is not the way to get ahead in the world.
The world says, “Blessed are the mighty and the successful, the honourable and the great, for theirs is the kingdom of the world. Just believe in yourself, develop a high self-image, act successful, act like a leader, and you can get anything the world has to offer.”
Once, when Muhammad Ali was interviewed on television, the commentator said, “Tell me, Muhammad Ali, what would you consider your greatest weakness?”
There was a stunned silence. “Would you repeat that question?”
“What do you consider your greatest weakness?”
“Well, if I have a weakness, it must be that I just don’t realize how great I am!”
Well, that’s the world. But that’s not Jesus. That’s not the New Testament. Satan gives the treasures of his earthly kingdom to the proud. God gives the treasures of His heavenly Kingdom to the humble.
God Resists the Proud
The verses I am using today as my two main texts came from The Navigators’ Topical Memory System (TMS). I have been quoting them for twenty-eight years and they still speak to me. It’s a slow process, but it’s a glorious process.
1 Peter 5:5b-6 (NKJV) says,
For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.
Have you ever seen God resisting your ministry? Have you ever seen God resisting you? Or have you ever seen God resisting somebody else? I’ve seen God resisting me many times over the years. The sad thing is that it often takes me a long time to realise it. There are many areas that I‘ve seen God resisting me in and I’d like to list a few.
I’ve seen Him resist me when I begin to rely too much on my gifts and abilities (or what I think they are). I find God resisting me because I am trusting in myself.
I’ve seen God resist me in dominating other people with my domineering type of leadership. And I’ve seen God resist my pride—attitudes like “I know the best strategy”, “I’ve got the missionary experience”, “My philosophy of ministry is the best philosophy of ministry. If my leaders would just wake up and find out how great my philosophy of ministry is and that I have the answer for their problems, boy, would we go!” God just resists that. He resists the proud, the self-sufficient and those who’ve got the answers.
It’s the poor in spirit that God responds to.
I could tell you stories that practically make me weep—should make me weep if I were more compassionate or more humble, or if I had more love—of friends whom God has resisted over these things. They seem to be doing so well then they seem to level off because they’ve got to dominate whatever they run. They are very loving and paternal, but their people can never grow up and have a healthy independence because they get locked into their philosophy of ministry.
I’ve been in ministry long enough to see ideas come and go. The sad thing is that though the ideas change, the idea people don’t change—they just develop a brittle mind such that they cannot flex and adapt to a changing, dynamic, growing ministry.
Once, somebody asked me, “What do you think is the problem, Doug?” and I said, “Well, I am sorry to say, I think they just don’t have a humbleness of mind.”
And God resists that.
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God resists the proud, the self-sufficient and those who‘ve got the answers.
It’s the poor in spirit that He responds to.
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God Gives Grace to the Humble
Have you ever seen God exalting man?
I’ve had the privilege of knowing Billy Graham over the years. Why is he such a good leader? I think it’s because he is a humble man, not because he is a good evangelist.
I’ve also had the privilege of knowing (though not as well) Dr. Francis Schaeffer. He’s a brilliant man but there are two things that stand out to me more than his mind: his humility and his love.
Spurgeon said, “The way to rise in the Kingdom of God is to sink in ourselves.”
Psalm 138:6 (NKJV) says,
Though the Lord is on high, yet He regards the lowly; But the proud He knows from afar.
What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? First, here’s what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean a lack of spirit. It doesn’t mean being a passive personality. It doesn’t mean being fearful, nervous, timid, inconclusive, indecisive or easily swayed. It doesn’t mean being retiring, shy or introverted. It doesn’t mean that you have to suppress your personality. It doesn’t mean any of those things.
What does it mean then? It is to have a fundamental correct attitude about one’s self, about God and about others.
1. A Correct Attitude about One’s Self
Being “poor in spirit” regarding ourselves doesn’t mean that we should go around saying, “Oh, I am nothing” when God has given us unique physical gifts, experiences, intellect and abilities. We are not to just shove those into the dark dungeons of our lives and deny them. We have to learn to accept ourselves as we really are. Not as we want to be, not as our ambitions are, or as others’ ambitions for us are, but just as we are. We need to have sane, realistic evaluations of ourselves as human beings in a human society, as husbands, as wives, as fathers, as mothers, as God’s servants.
But as members and servants of God’s Kingdom, there is another dimension altogether. In the Kingdom of God, we cannot carry out His work without the Holy Spirit. Those who realize they are inadequate without Him are the “poor in spirit”.
I remember when Leila and I were coming back from the hospital after the doctor had given us hope for the first time by saying, “I think we might have a cure here.” As we were walking down the street, Leila broke down and cried. She said, “You know, I am only worthy of hell.”
Now wives, I could tell you things about my wife that would make you very insecure. I am trying to write a biography on her, and you know what my biggest problem is? Defining weaknesses and faults that other women can identify with. Except in her attitudes and in her mind, she seemed to have no faults. You know how love is blind; I couldn’t see anything wrong with her. But she was right about only being worthy of hell—that is clear when I read my Bible.
How many of us really believe that we are only worthy of hell?
One morning at the breakfast table, our kids were complaining and Leila said to them, “Would you children please stop complaining? Do you know what you would get if you really got what you deserved?”
Little Chris, a really little guy at that time, piped up, “Yes, hell!” And all the kids looked at each other and stopped complaining.
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Those who realize they are inadequate without God are the “poor in spirit”.
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What can I do for God? What can I do that will have eternal significance? In myself, I am insignificant and I am insufficient to do God’s work.
That is the correct attitude about ourselves that we must begin with. But it doesn’t end there.
Click here for Part 2!