“The humble will see their God at work and be glad.”
Discouragement knocks loudly at the door after only one day of my schedule being upturned. When I settle to pray and process the upset of emotions, out-of-control rises to the top. “How can I ever be successful?” I ask myself.
In your pursuit to succeed, do you ever feel out-of-control?
Feeling out-of-control works against us and drives the desire to be in control even more. More control is not what we need.
The first two steps in a Christ-centered recovery program give clues on what might be missing from our success formula. Can you guess it?
- We admitted we were powerless over our dependencies – that our lives had become unmanageable.
- We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves, Jesus Christ, could restore us to sanity.
Admittance, the first step, takes humility. Humility helps us see we were not meant to be in control. We can attempt to conquer the thing, the goal, and our professed direction for success, but only with God’s help through His Son, Jesus, the second step, will we triumph.
“The humble will see their God at work and be glad. Let all who seek God’s help be encouraged” (Psalm 69:32, NLT, bold added).
Humility has a way of giving us 20/10 vision, which is thought to be the maximum vision possible without magnifying devices or binoculars. Humility empowers the humble, and in verse 32, the humble is paired with an under-the-radar commanding verb. “The humble will.” The powerful combination of these words reveals our key to success.
The Hebrew word “will,” in verse 32, is a word that overlaps time. These various translations capture the overlap.
“The humble will see…” (NLT)
“When the humble see…” (ESV)
“The humble shall see…” (KJV)
“The humble have seen it…” (NASB)
“The humble will see it…” (HCSB)
“The humble have seen it…” (YLT)
The Hebrew word for “will” implies those with an attitude of humility have already seen, and additionally, they will see. Those who are humble are positioned with a perspective that affords them the ability to see things those of us dealing with pride miss.
Pride blocks our ability to see God at work. We can become like prisoners to our achievements, drivenness, and need to succeed. Blinded by our self-sufficiency, we forfeit a front-row seat in witnessing God at work. (Romans 8:7)
Humility is willing to take the seat in the nosebleed section, the role of taking up the tickets, or wherever is needed to step out of the way for Christ to be center stage. As a result, in God’s grand narrative, the humble are thankful for how God has been at work and believe that He will be faithful again. This attitude secures their seat “to see their God at work.”
Like the thrill and excitement from a close-up encounter at a concert of the most amazing group, God will not disappoint.
“The humble have seen it and are glad; You who seek God [requiring Him as your greatest need], let your heart revive and live.” (Psalm 69:32, AMP, bold added)
Our humble hearts are glad; we are revived and live. We think we are living with our achieving, striving, and making things happen. Failing to recognize our need for God and obligingly yielding to Him usurps more than our ability to see our situation differently; pride causes us to miss out on the life God has for us.
The humble experience their best performance possible, a type of living made possible only because they sought God to formulate and fortify their goals, intentions, or direction.
“The humble have seen it and are glad; You who seek God, let your heart revive. For the LORD hears the needy, And does not despise those of His who are prisoners.” (Psalm 69:32-33, NASB)
The goal, the outcome, the not yet, can become all-consuming. Verse 33 reassures us that the LORD hears us and will not abandon us. But here we see humility stepping up again. This time the humble are described as “needy.”
Needy is not at the top of the list of most desired characteristics. Rather than consulting the Author or the Director, pride takes over and does not ask for help.
But the humble ask for God’s help and relinquish any desire to control. “The LORD hears.” What is He hearing? Our prayers, our cries for help, our hearts that admit we need Him.
“But that’s the role I wanted!” Our hearts cry out from the nosebleed section. God understands our battle with humility and pride or, put another way, freedom and incarceration. God will not despise us if we humble ourselves enough to cry out to Him. “He will never forget his people in prison” (verse 33, CEV). God knows the prison bars pride puts up, and He reaches out to free us.
Freed from pride, God will answer and move on our behalf. The humble have seen God move; they remember His involvement, recall how He was involved, and count on Him moving this time as well. Humility shifts the spotlight from self to Christ, making way for success to shine.
Will your life be free to be successful, or will your life be imprisoned to success?
I pray you experience the freedom that comes from humility, that success knocks on your door, and your heart is filled with gladness. May your stage have no room for pride and your prayer life increase. May you always remember that God never forgets you. In Jesus’ name, so be it.
Meditate: God, I need you; revive my heart
Reflect: Who is center stage in your life? How can humility help you see things differently? How does humility appease the feeling of being out of control? What areas in your life do you feel need success, and how can humility affect your outcome?
Rooted: Psalm 37:10-11, 16-19; Isaiah 29:19, 61:1-3; Matthew 5:5
This blog is a repost from January 2023.
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(Bible References: NLT – New Living Translation, ESV – English Standard Version, NASB – New American Standard Bible, CEV – Contemporary English Version, AMP – Amplified Version, YLT – Youngs Literal Translation, KJV – King James Version, HCSB – Holman Christian Standard Bible)
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This was a great post to come across today. Having lost our son almost a year ago (9/10/22) we struggle to have a seat in the “nose bleed section” of life. Our grief fights to keep us on the field at the 50 yard line; trying to go back in time, trying to change the last 5 years of our son’s life/of our life. Our pride keeps us in desperate need to control those unfolding events and that need numbs us to all the times God has been faithful to us and provided a refuge from this experience we call life.
Thank you for your words. They remind me that only God can grant peace to us in our grief and that to receive that peace I must humble myself before him.