Taught By God
Psalm 25:9 ESV says, “He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.”
It is usually more exciting to talk about success and achievement than humility. Aside from the tendency toward pride, we often reject the way of humility because we don’t want to lose control of the narrative. However, if we want to learn the ways of God, we first have to learn to be humble, which means letting God take the lead.
A verse like Psalm 25:9 seems almost too good to be true. Did I read that correctly? God is making himself available to personally lead and teach the humble?! While the reward of humility vastly outweighs the cost, pride is still chosen every day.
It is easy to overlook such amazing promises like these. Pursuing humility is costly. It requires us to remove any lies we are agreeing with to prop ourselves up. It demands that we consistently lose our position of power and control. It insists that we let others get the rewards we wanted. We find that no amount of sinful gain, power and control, or earthly success and recognition matters much at all when our life becomes consumed with the knowledge of God. Humility is costly, but living close to the veil of heaven is far more rewarding.
A life of abiding would not be worth pursuing unless God had made such radical promises like this one—further evidence that our lives are not meant to be conformed but rather transformed. God doesn’t desire a stagnant, limited life that “passes the test.” He desires an ongoing and renewing relationship of growth. He is an engaged Father and a master teacher, so his joy is in our progress toward freedom and glory.
Can you see today that God has invited you to be his child and his student? He has sent you the acceptance letter to his school of kingdom freedom, and it begins with choosing humility. I love the way James 4:10 ESV simplifies where we direct our humility. He says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” Our humility must be before the Lord. Anything else is a comparison game that traps us in false humility.
It can start right now, wherever you are. Come before the Lord in humility. There’s hardly a quicker way to humble your heart than to confess the greatness of God and admit how much you need him. Once you see how great God is, it gets painfully obvious that a humble heart is the only rightful way to approach God. That is where the glory and freedom begin.
God, show us how to be humble so we can be led and taught by you!
Amen.
