11 The Happiness in Humility.
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Now, through this whole season we have talked time and time and time again about the importance of humility and the need for it and how we can grow in it.
Today, I don’t want to talk about any of that. We gon’ talk about the fun stuff today.
I want to talk about the HAPPINESS that is found in humility. You heard me right. The happiness in humility.
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I’m sure many of you reading, or at least some of you, believe humility to be a dull work. A chore. A responsibility. You may look down on it. You may see it as the boring thing we must do in order to experience or have the fun thing. Maybe many of you listening view humility like kids view eating their vegetables. They don’t want to do it, but they know it is the healthy and right thing to do. And you know what? That example may very well be true of humility. It is a lot like eating your vegetables.
But hear me when I say this…we can and WE SHOULD find happiness in humility.
How many of you listening today have a weakness that you would like to get rid of? Like, if you could, you would love to not be terrible in ‘X’ area? That area could be listening, maybe you aren’t a good listener, or maybe that area is pride, or maybe it's communication, maybe it's showing grace, maybe it's intelligence, maybe it's athletic ability, maybe it is how you view yourself.
Whatever your weakness may be, do you ever just wish you could get rid of it?
And have any of you even gone as far as to pray for the Lord to get rid of it?
I can tell you I have. I struggle with pride so much, which is a big reason for me doing this series, and I have prayed time and again for the Lord to free me from that weakness and that sin struggle.
Have any of you done like me? Have you prayed for the removal of a weakness of yours? Well, let me tell you, Paul has. But the answer to his prayer was unlike any you’d expect.
In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Paul writes…
‘So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me’.
Here in these verses Paul is relating to you and to me. He has a weakness, one that keeps him from living in holiness and pursuing God. Something sent by the enemy to bother him. It most likely caused him to stumble. It most likely caused him to sin. It was annoying. We don’t exactly know what Paul’s weakness was, but we know he had one. And we know he pleaded with the Lord, that he BEGGED God THREE TIMES to get rid of this weakness of his.
We all should be able to relate to Paul. What thorn do you have? Is it lust? Spiritual pride? Love of money?
Whatever it is, we all have a thorn. In fact, many of us, if not all of us have multiple thorns. They cause us to sin. And it seems like they won’t go away.
So Paul did as I have done and maybe many of you have…in these verses he pleaded with God to free him from this thorn. But, God said to Paul, verse 9
‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…’
Wow. Do you know what this means? God is saying that his power is made perfect in our weaknesses, not our strengths. That means that in the weakness and humiliation that Paul’s thorn brought him, the grace and strength of God could be better shown and manifested. That means that God’s strength is better shown in your weaknesses and the humiliation that they bring you than in your strengths.
Paul’s reaction to this answer from God to his prayer is this, continuing in verse 9…
‘…Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me’.
Paul’s reaction to God effectively saying, ‘No Paul, I won’t remove that thorn of yours because my power is made perfect in your weakness’, is such that he reacts by glorifying and becoming glad of his thorn. So instead of continuing to ask for deliverance from it, Paul starts to take pleasure in it.
Do you know what Paul learned? He learned, as Andrew Murray says, ‘that the place of humiliation is the place of blessing, of power, and of joy’. IT TRULY IS.
Paul’s perspective became the one that took pleasure in whatever humbled him, because it allowed for God’ power to be shown more greatly. He realized that his thorn is what kept him humble. It is what kept him, as he says, from ‘becoming conceited’. In realizing all of this, Paul’s attitude effectively became this:
“I TAKE PLEASURE IN WHATEVER HUMBLES ME”
And so should ours.
Why? Because our thorns, our humiliations, lead us, in the experience of the presence and power of God, to choose humility as our highest blessing. To find joy in what humiliates us. To find happiness in humility. Because, in our humiliation, in our weakness, we see the power of God shown on a greater scale.
I want you, the reader, and I, to come to a point where we can glory in our weaknesses and our thorns so that God might be all, that God’s glory and power might rest and be shown through us. Now there is nothing wrong with asking for deliverance from a sin struggle and a thorn that you may have. We ought to fight sin and seek holiness with urgency and tenacity. And there are some weaknesses that God wants to deliver you from, without a doubt. Boasting in weakness is not an excuse to remain sinful. BUT, there are also some weaknesses right now that you may be praying for deliverance from that God actually wants you to see as opportunities for His glory and power to be shown more abundantly.
God may want your perspective to change to glory in that weakness, to take joy in its humiliation, so that His power might be shown through you. And you might be wondering, ‘Luke, that sounds great and all but how do I find joy in weakness? How do I find happiness in what humiliates me?’ I get those questions. Finding joy in weakness is completely counter cultural and hard to grasp.
And my answer to that question is to praise the Lord for giving us His Spirit. We need special instruction to learn what it is to glory in weakness and lowliness. But it can be done, and it will be done, if we ask God for it. We should pray, ‘Lord, teach me through your Spirit how to take joy in what humbles me, to glory in my weakness, just like Paul’.
We should want to have an attitude like Paul’s. We should want to take pleasure in whatever humbles us. So don’t run from what makes you weak. Don’t run from what humbles you. Embrace it. Find happiness in it. We should do this because, as Paul says in verse 10,
‘For when I am weak, then I am strong’.
You see it is when you and I are at our weakest points, our most lowly points, ones of complete emptiness and hopelessness before the Lord, that we are actually at our strongest points, because it is here that God can be all in our lives. Remember humility is the accurate assessment of self, that God is all, and we are nothing.
Leave today’s podcast encouraged to find happiness in what humbles you, seeking to share in Paul’s mindset, which says:
‘I take pleasure in whatever humbles me’
There is happiness in humility, and it is found when we glory in weakness; When we allow for God to reveal the immense magnitude of His power.
Happiness in humility.
I love you all.
God bless.
