“Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” (Matt. 19:17) The One who said these words also said, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” (John 10:18) “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.” (Psalm 82:6) Jesus Christ is God, three in one, impossible for the finite creature to understand, and yet He asked the man why he called Him good.
Humility to a degree we cannot understand, complete and total submission to the will of the Father, the only One who is good. Peter saw part of this humility, saying to the Lord, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O LORD.” (Luke 5:8) In abject humility we are to serve, even the Lord Jesus Christ knew this, the incredible power and might of Almighty God is seen by us, and pride remains, self continues to try to direct the lives of men, when in the face and presence of such awesome power and glory we should be continuously humbled. It takes very little time for man to stop searching for more once he has achieved his goals, most find rest in their accomplishments, enjoying the fruits of their labors, but that is not the path we are to be on.
When Peter fell down at the feet of the One who brought many fish to his net, he did not stay there, he got up, followed, and served. When Jonah was called to go to the Ninevites, a most cruel and perverse people, he tried to hide from God, he did not fall to his knees, get up, and then go. Humility in the life of many who profess Christ as Lord gets put to the side, as it were, when prosperity enters their lives, when all is going well, when the nation they live in is suffering no catastrophic events, we tend to forget who it is we serve and why. The dependency of many Christians on the Lord God is based mainly at times on the provisions He supplies. Did not Peter fall at the Lord’s feet for a few fish, did not the crowd follow Him because He healed them, fed them, and when the provisions stopped, when it was time for our Lord to go to the cross for the sins of all men, did not all forsake Him. “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8)
To not walk in humility before the Creator of all reality is not just disrespectful, it is foolish in the extreme, the attempt to determine the course of our own lives when all men are subject to God, when all souls will reside in one of two places for all eternity is not just ludicrous, it is sin. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Gal. 6:7) If you sow humility, you will receive honor, (Prov. 22:4) is it any great thing that we serve Him who all are bound to serve? What is happening in much of the mainstream community of believers is no new thing, the Lord provides, and we forget Him, it is the pattern of man. The generation that understands toil and struggle is the generation that serves in humility, the one that has much forgets.
You must stop and give thought to many of those who lived during the time that our Lord walked this earth, they followed Him, in part, because He fed them. He did not provide a three-bedroom house, two fine automobiles, a secure job, and health insurance, He gave them food for that day. And when He stopped feeding them with the needs of their flesh, when He said to them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled,” (John 6:26) they stopped, they no longer had need of Him. What Peter saw in the Lord when he fell at His feet that day is what we need to continue to see, not someone who will only supply our daily needs, but the One who will fulfill all our needs, today, tomorrow, and for all eternity. “Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” (Luke 17:17) Why? “Well, because we got what we wanted, we’ll be back when we need something else.”
If God doesn’t provide all of what some people believe they need, they will cease following Him, until the days of troubles and need reappear, then, as it was throughout the entire Book of Judges, they will call on Him again. Humility only seems to last as long as we have a need, when the needs are sufficiently met, callousness sets in, pride and apathy move in, and then we begin to expect that which we believe we deserve. Comfort tends to bring forgetfulness, struggles produce needs, but those who only call on the Lord in times of need are not always answered according to their own timeline, for it is in these times that we grow in our dependence on the Lord. There are some who will only call Him Lord in times of plenty, when life is going as it is expected to go by them, these are they who base their faith on materialistic possessions, the quality of their lives at the moment, and in fact that abiding faith wavers at every change in the direction of the wind. “Provide for me and I will serve, withhold from me and I will question, and doubt.”
Think now on the humility of the greatest servant of all time, the One who would not call Himself good, the One who served His betrayer for three years, the One “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:2) Not for the provisions of a healthy, happy, stress-free, calm, continuous existence, but for the joy that was before Him. Far too many want both a pleasureful, earthly life and the joys of heaven, they will not go to their knees in times of rest and plenty, but expect to be served in the difficult day.
I have fallen, you have fallen, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) You cannot continuously serve Christ here on your knees, but you can in your heart. Our service to Christ should never be based on our current circumstances, but on the knowledge that we were created to serve, in the continuing knowledge and faith that He whom we serve has promised, and His promises are true. He asks us to be what we cannot be, He is willing to make us into what we want to be, we must only find within us the humility to allow Him to do that work in us.
