March 26, 2024

Psalm 18.35 (NIV) 
You stoop down to make me great.

God, who must stoop to view the skies and bow to see what angels do, looks to the lowly and contrite, and makes them great.*

In James 4.10, we are instructed to “humble ourselves before the Lord,” and if we do, James says, we will be lifted up. It is one of the paradoxes of God (along with “you can’t out-give God” and “the last shall be first and the first shall be last”) that when we humble ourselves, God lowers himself to lift us up.

 

God demonstrated humility through his Son, who “was willing to come down to our level because he knew there was no way for us to rise to his.”* There is no greater example of humility than that of Jesus who went from being God to allowing himself to be made “a little lower than the angels.” (Hebrews 2.9) He emptied himself, “not of his identity, but of his divine majesty in order to become human.”* If you have ever had to give up a place of honor for an inferior one, you have an inkling of what it meant to be Jesus. But, “your place in heaven was more important to him than his place in heaven, so he gave up his so you could have yours.”*

Jesus tells us, in Matthew 23.12, “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” How much nicer it is when God stoops to lift us up – and how much higher we can go!

The highest honour in heaven will be the reward of the greatest humility on earth.*