Humility.  It may just be the key to walking into a new year with renewed vision. It may be the secret to experiencing restored relationships. It may be our answer when facing difficult people and our response when we just don’t know how to respond. 

In other words, humility may be just what we need to leave a difficult year behind us and walk into a fresh year with endless possibilities in Him. 

Humility marked the life of Jesus in His birth, His life, and His death. It marked His mission: He did not come to BE served but TO serve. 

We can do a lot without humility. We can lead without humility. Teach without humility. Perform without humility. But we cannot serve, truly serve, without humility. And we cannot be like Jesus without humility. 

I wonder how this year could have looked differently, relationally anyways, if humility marked OUR lives, OUR mission?  Where there was division, could there have been unity?  Where there was dismissiveness, could there have been acknowledgment?  Where there was disregard, could there have been respect?  Where there was hurt, could we have shared the healing words of Christ? Where there was hopelessness, could we have offered the hope found in Him?  Where there was loneliness, could we have brought the presence of the Living God?  Where there was darkness, could we have shone forth His light?  If humility had clothed us then the answer is yes, yes, and yes!

We can’t undo this past year, but we can look ahead to the New Year and with contrite hearts ask the Lord to enable us to walk humbly with Him and towards one another.  This is our marching order, the undercurrent of what love truly is, and the only description Jesus offered of Himself (see verses below). 

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5-8)
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“Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.  It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.  Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].”
(1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Amplified)
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“‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’” (Matthew 11:28-29)

Lord, thank you so much for this invitation to come to you. In you alone do we find our rest. So often when we refuse to walk in humility it is because we are not resting in you: we are trying to hold everything together, to control our circumstances, to control other people. We see how wrong we’ve gotten it. Please forgive us. Forgive us of our pride. Forgive us for refusing to listen. Forgive us for insisting we’re right. We humble ourselves before you. And we humble ourselves before others. Make us more like you. Help us in this New Year to walk in humility and to love others as you have loved us.