Prayer and Humility

Read Romans 12:3-8
³ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. ⁴ For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, ⁵ so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. ⁶ We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ⁷ ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; ⁸ the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

               I keep getting confused about humility, Lord.  What does it look and feel like?  When I am confused, I risk turning a virtue into a vice, strength into a weakness.  I pray today for the wisdom to grasp what humility means, for the will to grip the vision tightly enough so that I do not lose it, and for the grace to grow toward it.

                Help me to learn and remember that humility is not what we are to feel in the presence of other people.  Humility is not: 

¨   Feeling others are worthy and I am unworthy;

¨   Feeling my rights and even my needs should always retreat before the whims and wishes of others;

¨   Feeling I should be interested in others but have no reason to expect them to be interested in me. 

Help me to learn and remember that humility is what I feel in your presence, Lord.  Humility is: 

¨   Feeling my transience, your permanence;

¨   Feeling my littleness, your majesty and greatness;

¨   Feeling my frailties, your perfection;

¨   Feeling my blurred and partial vision, your clear, complete vision;

¨   Feeling my flickering obedience, your unwavering faithfulness. 

The word of the gospel is that you see me as I am and yet call me worthy -- worthy of love, respect, and patience.  When I see myself as valued by you, the way is opened for me to look upon other people with neither dependence nor condescension, but with the liberty and dignity one child of yours owes another child of yours.

Amen.