{"id":4281,"date":"2015-05-31T13:56:37","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T18:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/?p=4281"},"modified":"2015-07-05T13:44:04","modified_gmt":"2015-07-05T18:44:04","slug":"challenges-faith-humbleness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/after-the-fact\/challenges-faith-humbleness\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenges of Our Faith: Humbleness"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the next challenges of our faith is to learn how to keep our humbleness in balance with what we do not understand. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew 23:12<\/b><\/span><\/span> – And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Why is humbleness important? (Defined as <\/b><\/span><\/span>having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance.<\/span><\/span><\/span>) Humbleness as it is related to our faith is what keeps us grounded to the central point of focus. Without being humble we stray from the very ideal that God is able to perform our petition and that we cannot. And the further we go away from humbleness the more opposite of the outlook we obtain: instead of \u201cI can do all things through Christ\u201d we start thinking \u201cI can do it on my own\u201d <\/span><\/span>Having no humbleness in your heart to strengthen you is like going to the pool and wanting to swim but the pool has no water. It is like trying to take a drink of water from an empty bottle. So it is like we try to do something by faith but we do not satisfaction while we are doing it. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1 Kings 17:14-24<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Neither one of them blames God for their tragedy. Neither one of them tries to explain it away with easy answers. And neither one concludes that with the right amount of faith, there will never be any more pain in the widow\u2019s life. They simply go to God, asking him for help, appealing to his mercy. They have what we would call a\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>humble<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0faith<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>. It\u2019s humble because\u00a0they recognize that God often does things they don\u2019t understand. But it\u2019s faith because they never cease believing in the goodness of God.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of people attempt to have\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>faith without being humble<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>. In order to believe, they demand that God do exactly what they think he should. If he doesn\u2019t, then they lose their faith. In order for them to obey God\u2019s moral instructions, for instance, they have to agree with them. But if<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>God doesn\u2019t say things that offend you or do things that confuse you, then you aren\u2019t dealing with the true God; you\u2019re dealing with a figment of your own imagination.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>A god who conforms to your mind is usually only a projection of your mind.<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span> One of the ways we know that God is a living God\u2014and not just a projection of preconceived notions\u2014is that he leaves us with so many unanswered questions. If I invented a god, he would always take care of the people I like and would never surprise me. But God is confusing. He is surprising. He is constantly doing things that make me say, \u201cWhat?\u201d A humble faith is willing to live with unanswered questions, yet is confident in God\u2019s goodness. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So how do we stay humble? <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Prayer: <\/span><\/span>2 Chronicles 7:14<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Encouragement for others: <\/span><\/span>Ephesians 4:1-3<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Get rid of what tarnishes humbleness: <\/span><\/span>Ephesians 4:31-32<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Being patient when we do not understand: <\/span><\/span>1 Peter 5:6<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    One of the next challenges of our faith is to learn how to keep our humbleness in balance with what we do not understand. Matthew 23:12 – And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Why is humbleness important? (Defined as having or showing a modest … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[211],"tags":[580,2461,2462,90,1158,2463,2464,2367],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"post-4281","6":"format-standard","7":"category-after-the-fact","8":"post_tag-anger","9":"post_tag-challenge","10":"post_tag-exalt","11":"post_tag-faith","12":"post_tag-humbleness","13":"post_tag-reap","14":"post_tag-sow","15":"post_tag-thinking"},"yoast_head":"\nChallenges of Our Faith: Humbleness – Heart of Grace Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.heartofgraceministries.com\/blog\/after-the-fact\/challenges-faith-humbleness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Challenges of Our Faith: Humbleness – Heart of Grace Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the next challenges of our faith is to learn how to keep our humbleness in balance with what we do not understand. 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