Peter, Paul, and the other apostles were great men of God that we should look up to… right?
Great People of God
When we look at the lives of great saints – such as most of the apostles (Judas is excluded of course), Jim Elliot, Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, and many others – we tend to see their lives as exceptional and great, and honestly their work for the kingdom of God deserves to be recognized and praised. I’m willing to bet God is pleased with them, but we need to pull them down off their pedestals.
When we place them way up on those pedestals, we inadvertently make it seem like our own lives could never be that great. After all, they’re way up there and we’re way down here. Their “height” on the pedestal makes us feel lower than we actually are, like we don’t stand a chance.
In a way, that humility is a good thing, but the problem is that we’re actually putting the wrong person on those pedestals. Ask any one of those guys and they will likely tell you that Jesus deserves all of the glory and praise, not them. And it’s true! Not a single one of those people ought to be idolized; they were simply doing exactly the same thing that God expects each of us to do: be obedient to God’s will and calling and trust in him to get you through it and bring about the results he desires.
Humbled to God’s Will
Those people don’t have anything that you don’t have, except a humility aimed at God. You might be a generally humble person, but if your humility isn’t pointed toward God, then you’ll never succeed at fulfilling your calling because the desires of others or yourself will take priority. Humility is simply placing someone higher than yourself in importance and, in turn, placing the fulfillment of their will before your own (“seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”, Matthew 6:33). This humility toward God is essential for achieving greatness in the kingdom of God. Just ask all of the New Testament authors:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
1 Peter 5:6
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:6
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Matthew 23:12
Whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12). You want to be great? Put God first! Click To TweetSo the last will be first, and the first last.
Matthew 20:16
You don’t risk your life for the advancement of God’s kingdom because you’re someone special or amazing. It is simply because you believe God’s desires are above yours, as I’ve mentioned before when talking about what I learned from 1 Peter. So just remember, those great people are just normal people who humbled themselves before God, and God may have something just as great or even greater that he wants for your life. You just need to let him lead you in humility, one step at a time.
By the way, I have humble myself a bit here and openly admit that this is something I find greatly lacking in my own life. Humility is hard.
