There are many important lessons in life. Amongst them are the need for persistence and courage in tough times. Less likely learnt is the lesson to remain humble when one is blessed; whether the blessings be wealth, fame or power. I don’t know why but I have seen many people survive hard and very tough times and then see them lose their decency and “niceness” when success finally comes to them. Wealth has a deceptive way of making people think they are important when all they have a lot of is just money, which counts for nothing in heaven. Heaven counts how we use money for good and not the mere accumulation of money as an achievement. Or others upon becoming famous begin to treat others around them as lesser mortals and over evaluate themselves as being higher class or better than others. And those who achieve power whether militarily or by positions of authority begin to abuse their power instead of using what God give them for good.
Our Lord Jesus is emphatic that ALL positions of power, wealth or fame came because heaven permits us to have them momentarily during our sojourn on earth. When Pontius Pilate reminded Jesus that he had the power to crucify Him or let Him go, Jesus said that he had no power at all against Jesus unless it had been given to him from above (John 19:11). For exaltation or promotion does not come from the east or west or south but it comes from the Lord; for the Lord is the Judge who puts down one and exalts another (Psalm 75:4). There are some very direct and clear-cases of God giving authority and power to individuals and once they have received their power, they acted as if God is not involved in the process and tried to keep their own power through their own might and method. Jeroboam, who became a king by God’s gift, began to take upon himself idolatry and false worship in the Northern kingdom to preserve kingdom but ended up losing everything (1 Kings 11:31; 12:25-33; 14:10). Saul forgot how the Lord made him king and started abusing his authority as a king (1 Samuel 10:17-25; 13:13).
There are individuals who continue to remain humble even when God used them mightily or bring them into positions of power. Such are Daniel who immediately acknowledged that it was not his own ability or wisdom which helped to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2:30). When God first brought Solomon into power, he was humble and knew that he was incapable of judging God’s people and asked God for wisdom (1 Kings 3:7). Later in his life, he became more carried away by his power and married foreign wives and worshipped idols (1 Kings 11:4-13). Pride can come so easily when success is present. Even King David had displays of pride when he was king: he was instrumental in murdering Uriah when trying to hide his adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:7-12), he numbered Israel without the Lord’s permission (2 Samuel 24:1-3). Of course, those without God are used to showing off their pom and pride all the time. When their pride directly opposes what God is doing, judgment is swift (Acts 12:1-4, 20-24). God always resists the proud and exalts the humble (James 4:6).
Everything contrasts with our Lord Jesus who remains the humblest of all manifestations despite being the very personification of the Godhead to humanity. Jesus is the most powerful being in the whole Universe, the creator of all of heavens and the earth as the Word. Yet, He chose to be born in a manger and came to serve and not to be served. Our Father God supplies everything that Jesus needs on this earth and everything is under His command. Not once did our Lord Jesus displayed pride in all His power and success. We must all learn from our Master and Lord Jesus. What are the keys that can help us to remain humble despite being blessed with success from God?
1. We must always remain childlike and fully dependent on our Father through our successes
When Solomon started his kingship, he considered himself a child and his childlike prayers touched God and brought him wisdom (1 Kings 3:7). When the disciples of Jesus were arguing as to who was the greatest amongst them, Jesus took a little child to Him, set him in their midst and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will be no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.” (Matthew 18:1-5).” Being childlike is not just for humility but it is also the means to enter into the kingdom of God and receive true revelation (Matthew 10:15; Luke 10:21). It is also the manner in which perfect praise can come forth (Matthew 21:16). It seems that the more dependent we are upon the Father, the more perfect we become. No matter how young or how old we are now, to God our eternal Father we are all still like very, very little babes and children. We must not let the cunningness of this world or the craftiness of evil present in the world or the habits of adult lives of self-independence affect our relationship with God. Constantly we must remain childlike, humble and pure like little babes and children are before they reach the age of accountability. God looks for the simple pure, honest, undefiled heart of a child within each of us. Always learning and never proud but always humble.
2. We must acknowledge all our abilities, skills and gifts that brought us blessedness came from His love and grace towards us.
Nothing that we do should change our pure and simple relationship with the Father. One can easily become proud of an ability that we were born with or that we have acquired. It takes grace to acknowledge that all that we are able to do came from God working within us. Paul acknowledged that all that He is came from the grace of God working with him (1 Corinthians 15:10). He even considered his earthly education and background all as dung before our Lord Jesus (Philippians 3:8). Jesus was Paul’s only pursuit and he literally gave up everything for Jesus. He also suffered many, many tribulations and persecutions for our Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:24-29). Yet his love for Jesus, his willingness to exchange all that he had, even giving his entire life, so that he may know Jesus, the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings (Philippians 3:8). Our Lord Jesus asked the question, “What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Indeed, what do we want to exchange all of our lives for? What is it that is more valuable than life itself? Our Lord Jesus is our pearl of great price! Without our Lord Jesus all of us are nothing! (John 15:5). We must have this inner consciousness that we are nothing without Jesus and only in Jesus can we be everything God want us to be. Like Job, we must acknowledge that even our highest thoughts, our best oratory, our greatest achievements, all must melt before the presence of our Father God, creator and ruler of the whole Universe who freely gives us of His blessings to enjoy (Job 40:3-5). There is nothing good in us, only that which is of God is good in us, by ourselves we cannot be good (Mark 10:18). Indeed, there is nothing good in us, only that which is from Him, can be truly good.
3. The pursuit of love for God and towards all men must be the basis behind all our success
It was the love of God that moved God to sent His only begotten Son to save us (John 3:16). It is the love of Jesus for us that moved Him to sacrifice and gave His life for us (Romans 6:6-11). When something is done out of pure love, there is no motivation for reward nor for compensation. All the gifts of God – tongues, prophecy, faith, power, etc. – do not benefit until we truly do it all out of the pure motivation of God’s love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). The love of God propels the apostle Paul towards the preaching of the gospel in many difficult circumstances and places (2 Corinthians 5:14). The most important thing on the planet earth is love, actions of love, growing in love, creating stories of our love for God and for others.
Many people start their lives well with a desire to love God and to love others but along the way, we exchange the value of love into that of gaining money, fame and positions of power. Jesus warned us never to have money as a master (Matthew 6:24). The motivation of love through time becomes replaced in many good lives by the motivation for money, fame or pleasures. This results in emptiness and despair as the true meaning of life becomes replaced by the endless cycle of the pursuit of worldly things that do not last forever. It is good to be able always from the beginning to the end, maintain the pursuit of things that last eternally: love, character, attributes of God, heavenly and eternal qualities.
At the end of the day, each of us must ask the questions, “What is life? What is the purpose of life? What do we want to obtain from this life that is heaven worthy?” The daily mortal needs of this life often blind us to the eternal purposes of this life. It takes discipline to focus on the things that are eternal and heavenly each day while we go about with the daily requirements of living out a life that is both spiritually and naturally successful. Some succeed naturally by giving up spiritual success. Others seek to succeed spiritually but do not know how to succeed naturally. We live in both the spiritual and natural world, and we need to succeed on both dimensions. Otherwise, we could have just remained spirits in the heavenly realm and not needed to come to the earth and assume a physical body.
From the Bible perspective, the following truths are true:
- All success in the natural needs a spiritual element of success. This includes even those who do not know God yet. It is the law of God that it is success in the spiritual that produces success in the natural (2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Hebrews 11:3; 3 John 1:2).
- The spiritual and natural success of a person can flow into the next generation that does not deserve nor merit the success. We see the many times when a good king passes his success to his son, who turns out to be bad and causes a lost of that same success through time (Solomon inherited his father’s success – 1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-12; Hezekiah inherited a ruined kingdom from his father Ahaz and was prospered as he became a king attuned to spiritual matters but Manasseh his son, who inherited his success ruined it – 2 Chronicles 28:1-8; 29:1-2; 31:20-21; 33:1-2). This is also true of businesses where the first generation obeyed spiritual laws, knowingly or unknowingly, and the second generation who inherits the success can increase it or destroy it.
- The continuation of all success must always be rooted in spiritual principles which justify the continuation of natural success powered by spiritual success. Joshua took Moses’ successful ministry to Israel and continued to build it into greater success of the conquest of Canaan with God establishing him with his very own miracles and success (Joshua 1:1-9; 3:7-8).
To receive success, everyone must be humble in order to receive the gift of God’s grace. To continue in that success, everyone must remain humble so that the grace of God can increase and multiply. Avoid pride like the plague for it will destroy all inherited success. It is also that which prevents success. For who can succeed if God is resisting you? And who can fail if God is exalting you? (James 4:6). Let us be on the side of God, for if God is for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31). And God loves the meek and the humble, for the meek shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).