“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)
A few days into humility week, you might be thinking that you’d like to be a more humble person, but how do you do it? It’s not enough to just grit your teeth and focus and say, “I’m being humble now.”
Nope, humble is as humble does. We find clues about how to live humble in today’s verses. These famous words capture God’s promise to Israel after the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. God promised to fix what he broke in Israel when his people chose to “humble themselves.”
In this case, that involved three specific things:
A) “Pray:” To ask God for something is an admission that we cannot do it ourselves; that’s humility.
B) “Seek my face:” We can find what God shows us of himself in his Word, the Bible, but it takes time, effort, and energy to dive in there and look for it; that sacrifice of seeking for him requires humility.
C) “Turn from their wicked ways:” It’s not enough to just agree that our sin is wrong; we demonstrate our humble belief that God is right when we stop doing it.
Think: By this description, are you living a humble life? In other words, do you regularly pray, seek God’s face, and turn away from doing wrong things?
Pray: Ask God to help you demonstrate your humility before him by praying regularly, seeking his face, and turning away from sin.
Do: Write a note to yourself and leave it somewhere you’ll see it. Tell yourself, “Humility = Prayer + Seeking God + Turning from Sin.”