if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chr. 7:14 ESV).
The meaning of the word “humble”, as used in this verse, is “be subdued, be brought down, be low, be under, be brought into subjection.”
There are several New Testament verses that show this definition in their context:
Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. (Jas. 4:10 NASB)
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time (1 Pet. 5:6 NASB)
When I think of humility in terms of the Bible, especially the New Testament, several other words come to mind:
- Submit – to put into subjection
Furthermore, we had natural fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? (Heb. 12:9 HCSB)
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Jas. 4:7 ESV)
When we submit ourselves to God, we recognize that He gave us free will to make our own choices, but in that free will, we choose to subject ourselves to God and to obey Him. I downloaded this image from a Craig Groeschel tweet:
This simple prayer reminds us that we need to bring our entire life into subjection to God at all times.
- Surrender – to give oneself up into the power of another; yield
I have always heard about the idea of surrendering. We have songs that say “I Surrender All,” and “If You gladly chose surrender so will I.” But, the actual word is not used in the Bible in this context. However, the meaning comes across in various verses:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Rom. 12:1 ESV)
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Gal. 2:20 NASB)
Surrender means to give up. When I hear the phrase “give up,” 2 different images come to mind. The first comes from the movies where the criminal is surrendering to the authorities with his hands raised in the air. The other is that of an MMA fight when one fighter taps out. In both instances, one party is signaling to the other that they are giving up. It takes a certain degree of humility to do this.
- Deny – to forget oneself, lose sight of oneself and one’s own interests
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matt. 16:24 NASB)
And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Mark 8:34 NASB)
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23 NASB)
My pastor recently did a sermon series on discipleship. In the first week, he discussed the topic of denying yourself. Throughout the series, he referred back to it. At one point, he even said, “If Jesus is king, guess who is not!”
To humble yourself, you have to remove yourself from the throne of your life, and install Jesus as your King.
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