LOWLY OF HEART (HUMBLE)
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest for your souls.
First, let me say, right before this, Jesus told us to come to Him if we are loaded down, and He would give us rest. There is nothing like the feeling of rest. Rest usually comes when something is finished, and you sit down, drink some sweet tea, and rest. Jesus is not offering sweet tea, but He is offering rest in His finished work. If we are not at rest, we are not relying on His finished work because we are still trying to work it instead of being in faith. Next is our verse where Jesus said to come get hooked up and learn of Him. Come and learn? Yes. Jesus is saying, “Come, let me teach you.” How will He teach us? Through His Word and through the great teacher, the Holy Spirit. We must learn how to be meek and lowly of heart (humble) because it is not automatic. When we learn, when we acquire the necessary knowledge and our minds are renewed, it will cause us to find the rest we so desperately seek and need. Let’s look at being lowly of heart (humble).
Humility is an attitude of the heart that we take; it is the absence of feeling superior to others. A person who exhibits true humility is able to come under those who are over them in the Lord. They are not concerned about recognition and rank, just service. Humility is something the Lord Jesus, our example, displayed. It is so vital in our walk with the Lord that the Lord gave us a personal invitation to come learn humility from Him. In Luke 14:7-11, Jesus used an example of where to sit at a wedding. This does not just pertain to a wedding, but to the Kingdom of God and life in general. He told them not to take the upper, or the best, or the reserved seats just because they thought they were important. That way, if someone more important came in, they wouldn’t have to ask them to move down to a lower seat. What you ought to do is take the lower seat and be content; and then, if someone wants to move you up to the important seats, they will come and get you. In other words, don’t think yourself too important because you are liable to be humiliated in front of everyone and be paraded to a lower seat.
Humility is so important. In James and 1 Peter, we are taught, by the Holy Ghost, to humble ourselves. God is not going to humble you. You must humble yourself; you must come under voluntarily. When you truly humble yourself, God will then exalt you. When you humble yourself, there are all kinds of graces available to you, especially to resist the proudest being there ever has been and will be, the devil. In Psalm 149:4 (NIV), the Word says, “He crowns the humble with victory.” Jesus was the humblest man to ever walk the planet, and our Lord is asking us to come to Him and learn from Him how to be truly humble. Let’s take Him up on the invitation. Your prayer is, “Lord, teach me to be humble.” We are now well on our way to finding rest for our souls.