Daily Digest #229

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. —James 4:10

May we make time to review and reflect on today's passage....

Psalm 131

A song of ascents. Of David.

1 My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.

I love the closing paragraph on the given reflection: "The path to humility is twofold. It involves knowing who we are—having a proper self-esteem rather than thinking too highly of self. But most important, it requires knowing who God is—holding Him in highest esteem and trusting Him for His best in His time." Sometimes, even when we know who we are, we forget the latter, which still makes us proud and not notice. We are also often confused between having a healthy self-esteem and thinking too highly of ourselves. We become too self-conscious of our abilities, our gifts, our fortunes, that we tend to brag and not know it. We are used to stating the obvious sometimes. We forget that there are things that are better left unsaid, and much better left for other people to see and speak of. For me, that is humility.

There are things that are indeed praise-worthy, and there is nothing wrong in receiving sincere compliments. Should it be an ability, successful completion of a task or mere character, may we learn to divert the thanks and praise to God who made these things possible. May we be less conscious of our talents, abilities, wealth and/or beautiful looks, and be more concerned on what we can do with them for the glory of God. May we always remember that we have blessings so we may also be a blessing to others. Pray always.