Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Be Humble | Greg Holder | 1 Peter 5:6-7

Episode Date: August 26, 2021

What does it actually mean to have humility? And why does God want us to be humble? https://gregholder.com (Greg Holder), pastor at https://thecrossing.church (The Crossing) in St. Louis, Missouri, unpacks https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%205%3A6-7&version=NIV (1 Peter 5:6-7) to give a glimpse into how God responds to humility among his people. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit ourhttps://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ ( website) and follow us onhttps://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks ( Facebook),https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ ( Instagram), andhttps://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast ( Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Social Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks ( https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks) Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ ( https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/) Twitter:https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast ( https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast) Passages https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%205%3A6-7&version=NIV (1 Peter 5:6-7) Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. And I'm Patrick Miller. If you want to connect with us, follow us on Twitter at TMBT Podcast. You can also check out our hashtag, hashtag, AskT, TMBT, where you can ask us anything, and we'd love to connect with you. Hi, my name is Greg Holder, and I'm another pastor from another church called the Crossing in another city. same kingdom, same Jesus, and absolutely the same scripture.

So let me just tell you a passage that has become important to me over the years, and it's really important to be these last couple of years. It's from one of Peter's letters towards the end of the New Testament. And I think what's interesting is that the Peter we encounter here is different from the brash guy that we meet in the Gospels. Now, I love the Peter of the Gospels because I can relate to him. He says too much. He says it too fast. He's usually overestimating what he can handle on his.

own. But by the time we get to these letters, this Peter is different. He speaks of facing suffering head on instead of avoiding it, for instance. He heads into life with his eyes wide open, and he knows absolutely that he can't do this on his own. And so towards the end of this amazing little letter we call First Peter is a passage in chapter five that I think is so timely, and for me it's so important. And it's really still hard to remember because it has a word in it that's just is not that easy for most of us. Or I'll just say for me, it clings on my own 10 ears, especially if it's a verb. 1. Peter 5, 6 and 7, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares

for you. So the word that sometimes catches in my mind is humble, humble yourselves. That's how I'm supposed to face the roughest edges of my life. The power to thrive belongs to God, not me. In fact, in the previous verse, Peter has just quoted the same proverb that James does, and when he reminds us that God opposes the proud, but shows grace to the humble. Who wants that? The God of the universe working against them? Not me.

Life's hard enough when he's with me, when he's working alongside me. Why would I ever want him pushing against me? And yet, I find myself tempted at times to live in a kind of, I don't know, quiet independence from him every day. This is what it means for me to be proud. Even when trouble hits, the instinct sometimes is for me to scramble hard to kind of think and work my way out of a jam. And then as an afterthought prayer is offered. But that's not it. Am I willing to humble myself under God's mighty hand?

Now, you might even wonder what that means. Well, it's a word picture that reaches back, I think, to the Old Testament. For example, only the mighty hand of God could compel the Pharaoh to release Israel from bondage. So God's strong hand reveals his greatness, for he is like no other. Believe me, God is in charge. And the mighty hand of God will protect us. So whatever hardship I face, whatever hardship you face now is not intimidating to him. It's not overwhelming.

It's not confusing to him. See, when a storm moves in fast, I think we still have a choice. We can stand proudly like some sort of a superhero, hands on our hips, chest out, cape flapping in the wind. We can fold like a pup tent in a hurricane. We can angrily shake our fist at the howling skies. We can bitterly blame the rest of the world while the thunder rolls in. We can scramble for some quick fix in the rain, or we could take shelter out of the mighty

hand of God. I could humble myself. Now, the Greek word there, without getting too technical, at its root, it means to make low. It is this picture of not rising far from the ground. If you think about it all throughout the scriptures, you see people who are sitting or standing or kneeling. Their posture seems to match their prayers. And I can relate to that. Sometimes I pace. Sometimes I look up. Sometimes I'm on my knees. Sometimes I had my face in prayer. The Bible talks about people lying flat on their face before God. And I don't know if you do that very much. I used to not do that until I saw it firsthand.

I was at this conference. It was a large conference on the East Coast, and I was one of the speakers there, and the morning was full of these breakout sessions, and I had done some of those, but now it was going to be my turn in the afternoon to be the main speaker. So I go back to this prep room, this, I don't know, green room, whatever you want to call it, and I was going to get wired up. I was going to gather my thoughts, pray before I went out there. And then the CEO of this organization sponsoring the event shows up, and he wants to talk.

And so, you know, you've got to be nice, right? then a young man who was kind of the MC shows up and he wanted to get our details right. Now, I'm okay. I'm looking at my watch. I've still got plenty of time. But then this executive said to us, he said, fellas, I don't know about you, but I need to get on my face before God. We both said, yeah, yeah, sounds good. Let's pray.

I had no idea he was talking about this literally because now he asked me us to like join him on the floor with our faces before God. Not pray that way before, just not with other people in the room. So I start to hear this guy pour out his heart, and there's just such humility to it. And meanwhile, in my own head, there's this back and forth dialogue with God. And it's honestly, it's not that great. I'm like, God, this floor is filthy. I've got to go out there in a minute. Help me to collect my thoughts.

And then I fight back. No, no, no, he's right. He's right. I should pour this out to you. I hear his humility. He's kind of softening my prayers. Some place in there, a tech person opens the door abruptly. And the first thing I thought was, what's he going to think?

of us. And, you know, I wanted to get up desperately and explain this isn't as weird as it looks. But then God started taking over. And somehow I began to pray from a different place. And I started, I really did. I started confessing my pride that is filthier than anything on that floor. And I admitted one more time how I worry way too much about what other people think of me. And then gratitude started showing up. And I started thanking God for my family, for my wife, for my church, that God has allowed me to do this and over the years and I started confessing I don't care what my clothes look like when I get out there. All I remember is that I began to thank God for pulling a prideful man down on the floor next to this really humble one. I think I think that's the image Peter is describing. It's just

so counterintuitive, right? But we submit and in that submission there's a relief and there's freedom him. And I don't have to be the smartest or the strongest or the most put-together person. I humble myself. I pour all of this out. And God says, it's not just a matter of saying I can't do this on my own or I don't want to face this on my own. One of the specific actions I'm told here is to cast all of my anxieties on him because he cares for me. I can give you a whole list of my anxieties. But I cast them on him. That's what I'm trying to do these days. I think it's time to. to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of the sovereign God. The God who's not outmatched, he's not outwitted, even when I am. He's still in charge.

He's still close. And now the rest of it. He still cares for me. The mighty God of the universe is not just in charge at the world. He's attending to the details of my life in this world. So one of the choices I have in these moments when a storm hits is, Will I trust that he's going to champion me? Will I still choose to humble myself to the God who cares?

So I humble myself under the mighty hand of God so that he may lift me up in due time. What time? Honestly, it's his time. The scriptures tell us that after I've suffered for a little while, he will restore me and make me strong and firm and steadfast, but I still don't know how long a little while is. I just don't know. What I can tell you is, in this in-between time, it's often longer that I want,

and rarely is it as long as I fear, but in this in-between time, we persevere. By his grace, by his sustenance, we endure the day. And then we wake up to face the next one. And then the day after that and the day after that, and on that day, God still cares. And in due time, he will lift me up. And I believe he'll do the same for you.

So I say in these strange days in which we find ourselves, let's bombard heaven with our longings. And let's trust that he and he alone can bring us to a new place in our life, in our career, in our homes, in our relationships, in our church. This is why 1st Peter 5, 6, and 7 is one of my favorite passages these days. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. that helps other people find this podcast more easily.

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