Overcomer - Humility brings Favor

 Tues.   9/29

Read James 4:1-10

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud

   but shows favor to the humble.”

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

James addresses a number of reasons why people fight and quarrel.  Chief among them is the lack of humility.  He quotes Proverbs 3:34 to underscore just how seriously God takes the sin of pride and the virtue of humility.

Memory Verse

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  

Ephesians 4:2 NIV

Reflect

Questions

Think about times when your pride has gotten in the way of a healthy relationship.  Why is it so hard for you to swallow your pride?

Read the passage again slowly.  Think about the passage in reverse.  How is pride a source of all the trouble listed before it?

Apparently God takes pride as a serious sin. Perhaps because it was the cause of Lucifer’s downfall.  Perhaps because it makes us feel too big to need God.  What do you think?

Prayer

Father in heaven, thank You that you alone are God and I’m not.  Remind me every day just how dependent I am on you for everything I have and am.  Help me to learn the gentle grace of humility one day at a time.  May I not compare myself to other people all the time but rather to you.  In you I am somebody who matters. Amen.

Share

Gather some family friends together and read the passage. Then ask this question:

Do you have to be downcast and insecure to be humble? What does real humility look like?  

DFM Nation

Sunday Pastor Glenn will dive into a more in depth teaching on how Generosity can overcome Greed. Take a moment to pray for and invite someone.