Submit In Humility - Day 8

Today's word is "humility".

We've identified that in the examination process that there is a point of submission before the exam. It's like when we go to the doctors office and the nurse or the doctors assistant says, "take off our clothes and put on the gown and I'll be back". We are submitting to the authority of that doctor and his staff. This is humbling.

In order to take the exam, we must follow his instructions in preparation for the exam. In a examination time of prayer before the Lord, there is a humility that is required. It is like second Chronicles 7:14 where it says, "if my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and heal their land."

Humility is required to be examined by the Lord. It is necessary. Humility in prayer is saying to the Lord, "I don't know what you know and I don't see what you see. I submit myself to you and I purpose in my heart and my mind to know nothing." I think of the verse in 1st Peter, 5:6 that says humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time (or at due time), he may exalt you.

So in prayer, we humble ourselves under his hand. The hand of God can be thought of as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit performs the examination needed so that we can see what the Lord wants us to see. When we talk of humility, we can also think of teachability. We need to be taught by the Lord. The Holy Spirit will teach us when, and if we are humble. If we resist his instruction and correction, then we prove that there's pride in us, and in some cases denial as well. James chapter 4, verse 6 says, "But he gives more grace. Therefore it says God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." As we humble ourselves, God gives grace and part of that grace is the Holy Spirit that searches our heart, and shows us the areas we need to correct.

It's like a young boy who gets a splinter in his finger while playing outside. He comes running back into the house to his mother, crying because the splinter hurts. The mother who has the ability to pull the splinter out and heal the hurt has to calm the boy down and instruct him about how she is going to remove the splinter. The boy must submit and be still in order to receive help.

So, as we pray, let's humbly submit our self to the Lord and present our spirit, soul and body to him to be examined by the Holy Spirit, and let him fully perform his examination.