The Humility of a Steadfast Mind

What if we humbled ourselves enough to not need to understand? What if we allowed "God said" to be enough reason to believe and obey? I've realized recently how much I have required myself to understand what God is doing/saying to believe it completely. I was pretty good at being steadfast to the things that made sense, but when it came to trusting when it didn't make sense, I wasn't so strong. When it was between trusting God or trusting what I could see, I often chose the latter. And when times of difficulty came, they became even more difficult because my faith in God wasn't leading the fight, my doubts were. The enemy would love to get you to trust in what you can see and understand, because He knows that will cause you to doubt God. Think back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God gave them specific instructions not to eat of the tree, and they were fine with that commandment until the enemy used their reasoning against them. He provided seemingly good reasons as to why they should partake of the fruit, and when they decided to trust in their understanding rather than God's command, that's when everything went wrong. Genesis 3:6 says, "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate" (ESV). What Eve saw of the tree was good reason to want to partake of its fruit; I mean, it looked delicious and was supposed to make her wise - both good things, except for the fact that God told them not to. You see, too often we will listen to reasoning because it makes sense, even when it goes against what God says, and that is where we continue to get it wrong. No reasoning can overtake God's direction. If He says no, then there is no reasoning in the world that should get us to say yes. And if He says yes, then there's nothing that should be able to stop us from pursuing what He has given the go-ahead for. Too often though, we rely on the comfort of what makes sense rather than the guidance of God.

I think having a steadfast mind requires humility because there will come a time when God's Word won't make sense, and what He is calling you to do feels so uncomfortable that you won't want to do it. And it's in those moments that we have to humble ourselves, remembering who we are compared to who God is, and then believe and obey what He says. Not because it makes sense to us, or because we would choose to do it anyway, but because we trust Who God says He is and what He tells us enough to lay ourselves down in submission. And I believe that as we learn to do that it will bring so much joy and peace to our lives because we will no longer be struggling for the need to understand or be fighting to try and be god in our life; all we'll be doing is living confidently in who God is and what He says. Humility will bring joy, peace, and rest to your life as you allow it to take over all the places you've held so tightly to in pride. Romans 15:13 says, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (NIV). You will experience joy and peace through trusting, not through understanding everything. I think it's time we start trusting God enough to remain steadfast to Him and what He says, rather than remaining steadfast to ourselves.

I find it next to impossible to be steadfast to God and His word without humility. The enemy is going to lie to you over and over again, trying to get you to fall back to a dependence upon yourself and your own understanding rather than standing with a dependence upon God. Only in humility can I trust God more than I trust myself. For some reason we have believed this lie of pride that we can hold ourselves up better than God can. Just because He doesn't do what you want or expect doesn't mean He can't be trusted. It's okay if we don't understand. It's okay to not have it all figured out. But it is not okay to throw our faith to the side when it doesn't make sense. We need to be humble enough to trust God more - more than ourselves, more than what makes sense, and more than what makes us comfortable. He is the only One worth trusting. The only One who has never lied, never broken His word, never changed. If we could only be humble enough to trust that Who He is encompasses all that we need, and that what He says will never fail to be true.

I think in my own life I've sometimes struggled to trust God (and His word) because He didn't always meet my expectations of how I thought a situation should play out. Again, I was relying upon my own reasoning rather than trusting God's character. And because what was happening didn't make sense to me, I resorted to questioning Him and His word, rather than questioning my understanding of the situation. We, often unknowingly, harbor a pride within ourselves that says, "my understanding equates to truth." We are not God though, and we do not have an infinite understanding. When we let go of our need to control the outcomes of life and the need to put everything together in a way that makes sense, I think we will find more freedom than we ever found by chasing it in the first place.

If we want to remain steadfast to God and His word, then we need to lay ourselves down - our need to understand, our need to be right, and our need to be the center of our world. Living a life steadfast to God means no longer being steadfast to ourselves, and while that is a difficult transition, I think we will learn that it is actually freeing. I think the journey to humble ourselves will be one of the best journeys we can partake on. Jesus says, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew16:25, ESV). I'm ready to lose myself for Jesus. We get to choose what we remain steadfast to, and with all that I have, I choose Jesus.