Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Humility

My mind is drawn yet again to humility. What does it take to develop the humility necessary to follow my Savior? What steps can I take to ensure I have that humility for myself and am not "compelled to be humble"? How do I know when I am avoiding pride and keeping humility in my life.

I truly believe without humility it is impossible for Jesus to change my heart. Humility is the essence of the statement "I will yield my heart to God". But what exactly does this humble yielding look like?

For me, I feel humility when I have a willingness to do anything the Lord would ask of me to make the change I am seeking...in my case the healing of my addiction. Addiction in particular thrives in secrecy. When I feel pride, I am not willing to talk to others about my struggles, to openly admit that I have this problem and that I still struggle with it. When I am humble, I am able to respond to the promptings of the spirit to be open about my problems with the people I love.

This small test of humility is a good litmus test for me. Am I today, willing to admit my problem to those close to me, and admit my current struggles and temptations, or is it more important for me to appear righteous?

I have also found that taking myself out of my comfort zone by speaking to someone about my addiction, helps push me back into humility when I am not feeling particularly like yielding my heart that day.

I pray every night that I can be humble, yield my heart to the Lord, and do anything he asks of me. That is the answer to true gospel change. It is something I am still seeking and striving for.

1 comment:

Daniel said...

Someone in church made a wonderful comment about this. They used the analogy to a bridled horse. With training, a horse can feel the slightest twitch of the bridle and will respond accordingly. So it is with us to be humble, to quickly respond to those promptings we receive from the Holy Ghost to conform ourselves with the will of the Lord.

I really appreciated this person's comment and it made me realize that I am a little slow to follow the Lord's promptings and sometimes I am not really seeking to receive them. Your post reinforced the point and I'm grateful for it.