As my days wind down on this earth, two words ring in my ears “Hunger” and “Humility”. When I looked these two words up together on the Internet, they were associated with corporate and gym slogans meant for getting ahead in life. That is not what I am referring to. I am referring to a hunger for the things of God and living a life of total humility submitted to God. What I mean by total humility is losing one’s life of self:
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25 NKJV)
The New Testament has a lot to say about living a life of godly humility and hungering for the things of God:
“And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (This is reiterated 3X’s in Matthew 23:12, Luke 14:11, and Luke 18:14 NKJV)
“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3-4 NKJV)
God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. (James 4:6, 10 NKJV)
Be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. (1Peter 5:5-6 NKJV)
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering. (Colossians 3:12 NKJV)
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6)
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. (Luke 6:21 NKJV)
Let us hunger for more and more of the Word of God. Let us not be reprimanded like the writer of Hebrews had to do:
You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. (Hebrews 5:12-14 NLT)
As I close, let us ponder the words Pastor Jim Cymbala passes on to us:
Annointing 