In Humility, Value Others Above Yourself

(Beautiful sunrise at the park yesterday)

I am happy to report that I tried something new about waking up early today. I put my phone across the room so I would have to get up out of bed when the alarm went off at 5:30 am and I totally did it! When I have tried that before, I stand up, walk over, hit snooze, bring my phone with, and go back to sleep until the alarm goes off again, snooze, repeat. Today, I was up and ready for devotional at 5:50 am! I am still soaking on this idea of submission and how I can apply it to my life, so that is where my study was this morning.

At the end of War Room, 2 Chronicles 7:14 was shown.The Lord says...

"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place."

The words humble themselves really sticks out to me. Submission to God, to others, to your husbands, to your wives - that is really humbling yourself isn't it? You have to give up that fleshly desire to defend yourself. Defend is actually an antonym of submit. I looked up the word submit and the four most relevant synonyms were acknowledge, defer, surrender, and agree. I need to acknowledge that God has got this! I need to defer my desire to defend myself to God, He will defend me. (It is important to note that I am not talking about an abusive relationship. Don't get me wrong, God can and will deliver you from that, but I am talking about when it is physically and emotionally safe to submit. If you are in a place where you do not feel safe emotionally or physically, you should consider seeking trained, outside help.)

Philippians 2:3-4 says "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others."

Pride gets in the way a lot when it comes to living out this verse. I feel the need to protect my pride and protect myself. What would it look like if we really took this verse to heart and applied it to all of our relationships? Christ did this for us, He wasn't worried about Himself here on Earth. He was constantly helping others and praying for all of us. He is a great example of living out this verse. Those are some big shoes to fill, but that's okay because we don't have to do it on our own. "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13).  Just yesterday I was so upset about something that had happened at work and I literally said to myself, "I can't do this! I am so mad about this!" God showed up right there and told me, "No you can't, but I can, just lean into me and I will take care of your emotions and your response." It helped me a lot and I was able to approach the situation with poise and wisdom. Next time you find yourself wanting to defend yourself when you could defer your thoughts to God, ask God for the courage to be humble and remind yourself that you can do all things through Christ. Any successes or struggles you would like to share on this topic?