So today morning I had this interesting thought about humility.

There is something that I have always found fascinating. And that is—

That Jesus ate fish.

For some reason whenever I have this thought, my heart lights up with this amazement and I am honestly unable to wrap my mind around it.

Can you imagine?

The creator of the universe, eating fish.

This makes me feel so humbled and even ashamed whenever I feel as though I deserve to be treated in a certain, ‘special way’. How haughty right? Like I am somebody.

If the one who created those same fish, gave up all His Glory, His Angels, His Throne, His Infinite universe, His Power and Authority, His Cherubim and Seraphim, and many other glorious things I cannot even fathom; and came into this corrupt world, became a carpenter, washed people’s feet and ate fish. Who am I, that I should feel as though I should be served?

The life of Jesus is just so humbling. How so relatable He was to every single person on earth! At times I wonder how some perceived ‘men of God’ stride in their glory and pomp, forgetting that the one whom they should be representing and serving had all the power and authority in the universe, power that is not even conceivable to man, yet He humbled Himself so lowly. Being born of a very poor family, He lived a life that drew no attention to Himself until He  began His ministry. Yet even when He was becoming known for His teachings and work, He oft withdrew Himself from the crowds and spent many days alone in prayer.

This is the greatest lesson of humility and love on earth. God stripped Himself of everything and came into a world He created, lived with His creation and allowed His own creation to physically put Him to death. People literally tried killing God. This just goes to show us how corrupt and evil man’s heart is. How man desires to live a life where he is accountable to nobody but himself, and a life where he is god.

Our hearts desire men’s praise and accolades. We desire that men would look at us with such great aweeeeee, and think of us as such gracious and wonderful creatures. The heart of man exalts itself so highly that it dare not be challenged to be so corrupt and worthy of God’s judgement. And so, we perceive ourselves to be good people. Only we forget we are measuring ourselves against ourselves. If we were to use God’s standards, we would be shocked at how high a standard God expects us to live by and how terribly pathetic we do everyday.

Let us have a look at just three of them.

Thou shalt not have no other gods before me

This commandment is violated everyday. When we are reproved of sin, we often say things like ‘We are all God’s children, He forgives and loves us all.’ Already we create our own god in our heads who forgives and loves all children. For yes, God is forgiving and loves us all, but that is not the true and living God. The true and living God is equally just and equally merciful. He hates sin whether it is a small white lie or a little bribe to a policeman. God must judge all sin.

Thou shalt not murder

This is the one I liked to compare myself with best saying, “Well, at least I have never killed anybody” But hold up! Jesus said, “You have heard it was said to those of old, You shall not kill, and whoever kills will be in danger of judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother in his heart without cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raca! shall be in danger of the council. Whoever says, You fool! shall be in danger of hell fire.” Now, now, my friends, gossiping lies here, envying’s and jealousy also lie here, and hate or dislike of people for no reason as well lie here.

Thou shalt not steal

If you have ever stolen anything, even licking your mother’s sugar in the kitchen, downloading music from the internet (not paid for), borrowing your employer’s time to talk stories, maybe catch up on latest movies and wasting time, that is theft!

Keeping in mind scriptures say that if we transgress even one law, we have transgressed the whole law.

Now, I am in no wise trying to heap a load of burden onto people’s shoulders but just to show us that God’s standard is perfection. That is how we make it to His Kingdom.

And if we have only looked at just three of His standards and spotted ourselves somewhere, then we see how badly off we do everyday.

So yes! God loved us so much, so dearly, even beyond our own human conception and understanding that He humbled Himself to the point of eating fish and bread, experiencing the joys of having a family, the sorrows of losing friends, the pains of rejection, sleeping under trees and in strange places as he travelled serving and ministering to people.

All so that He could save us. He lived up to this perfect standard, where we all fell short and took upon Himself the judgement that was meant to be ours, so that we could have the life that was never ours even by a glimmer—Eternal Life.

Oh how strange a love He has for us! A love that is willing to do everything possible in His power to redeem us back to Himself without violating our free will. So that individually, we can make our own choice, either choose Him or the ruler of this world, the devil.

And that was my short but humbling thought today! So I leave us all with a verse to reflect in each of our lives asking ourselves, just how highly do we think of ourselves?

Matthew 20

27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

♣

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