Have you ever wondered what moves God the most? May I suggest to you two things that truly touch the heart of God. In today’s devotion I will discuss the first one – humility.
Just what is this thing called humility that would cause God to say: “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” (James 4:10). And: “…A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17).
God is constantly examining our hearts and what He is most concerned with is the “cry” of our heart. Now when I say “cry” I don’t necessarily mean the generation of physical tears. The tears that God looks for and that really move Him are the tears of humility. Many people often mistake outward tears as a sign of true humility. But God knows that each person possesses a certain emotional temperament, and some people are far more emotional than others. Certain individuals, when they fail God, cry quite easily in remorse because of their emotional temperament, while others hardly shed a tear; although they may feel that same remorse.
The true tears of humility have nothing to do with whether they are outwardly manifested or inwardly contained. For humility is a state of the heart which acknowledges that God is the sovereign Lord of all the universe and as we mediate on this thought there occurs a total disappearance of self.
Throughout the Bible we see that God is deeply moved when He sees His children “cry” for mercy when they fall short of God’s standards and sin. A good case in point is the wicked king of Judah, Manasseh. His wickedness became so great that God allowed him to be taken captive to Babylon. But praise God for (2 Chronicles 33:12-13): “Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.”
Note, however, that sometimes tears don’t move God at all. We see this perfectly illustrated in (Hebrews 12:16-17): “that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”
Humility, at other times, doesn’t involve our need for deep repentance from sin but just our giving up of self and allowing God to take all the credit for the blessings in our lives and the gifts and talents we possess. True humility knows nothing except that God is worthy to receive all of our love, service, and praise both now and forever.
A humble Christian, therefore, mourns deeply over sin, gives God all the praise and glory in all circumstances, and desires to use all of his talents to advance the kingdom of God; being careful to give God all the glory for the privilege of being used to accomplish these goals.
In the final analysis true humility is the crown virtue of Christian character. And the more we humble ourselves at the foot of the cross, the more God will be moved on the throne of His glory.