Have you ever known someone who was truly humble? Not someone who constantly put themselves down or had very low self-esteem. That is not healthy nor biblical humility. Have you known someone with biblical humility? How did it evidence itself in their lives?
As I continue to dwell on, study and pray about this idea of “returning to my first love,” two thoughts are revealed to me.
a) Biblical humility is a must for such a return and maintenance of an intimate relationship with God. Biblical humility – recognizing oneself as a sinner before, and in need of, a holy God.
Isaiah 57:15 – ….. I [God] dwell …. with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
b) We are beloved by God.
Rom 9:25 – As indeed He says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’
It’s important to have biblical humility in conjunction with the personal understanding that we are beloved by God. Otherwise we end up only in a guilt complex and/or self-loathing.
Being beloved by God is the true core of our existence. It is in understanding this, in taking it into the core of our being, that we develop biblical humility. It is then that we have “godly sorrow leading to repentance” (2 Cor 7:10). It is then that we will have a true (and healthy) biblical humility that flavors how we see ourselves, others and how we live and move in this world. It makes Philippians 2:3-8 become possible in our lives.
“But as long as ‘being the beloved’ is little more than a beautiful thought or a lofty idea that hangs above our lives to keep us from becoming depressed, nothing really changes. We ARE beloved. We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children or friends loved or wounded us.” — Henri J.M. Nouwen in Life of the Beloved.
That’s the truth spoken by the Holy Spirit who lives in all of us who are believers in Christ Jesus.
As you pray, listen! God calls out to you, His beloved. “I have called you by name from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother’s womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. Wherever you go, I go with you. You are my beloved. Nothing will ever separate us.”
This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. — 1 John 4:10
Returning to your first love begins with godly sorrow, biblical humility, and a recognition that we ARE beloved by God — and always will be.
Ants in the Pants of Faith 