The Marriage of Faith and Humility
We cannot advance spiritually without the virtues of faith and humility walking together. When either is isolated from the other, our walk becomes unbalanced. Faith without humility degrades into presumption, while humility isolated from faith can become oppressive. We need both.
Scriptures tell us that without faith it is impossible to please God and that whatever is done without faith is sin (Heb. 11:6; Rom. 14:23). God gives promises, and it is faith that possesses them. Yet what faith possesses, humility surrenders.
Consider Christ: there will be a time when every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2:10-11). The kingdoms of this world will finally become the kingdom of our Lord (Rev. 11:15). However, Christ's reaction to subduing the world is that He then "hands over the kingdom to the . . . Father" (1 Cor. 15:24). This is the humility of Christ: what He conquers, He then surrenders.
In America we want faith to conquer, but we're not sure we want the second part, giving it back to God. Yet this is the pattern of those who have followed God: Abraham has faith and believes God and, in time, the promised son is born. Yet at the command of God, Abraham, in worshipful surrender, takes Isaac to a mountain and there actually surrenders him back to God. David conquers Jerusalem then dedicates it to the Lord, calling it the "city of God." Or consider Hannah who was barren, who bears a child, Samuel, but then surrenders Samuel to God (1 Sam. 1). I pray for my city, not so I can possess it, but so I can give it back to God. Whatever we gain by faith, to grow into maturity, we must surrender as an offering back to God.
This is the great mystery, one that I believe holds within itself a key to the power of God working in our lives: what we give over to God, He takes over. He multiplies the loaves and fish. so He will multiply our resources as we surrender our treasures to God, where neither moth not dust corrupts (Matt. 6:20).
You see, our goal is not only to create a better life here for ourselves but, through faith and humility, to extend the Kingdom of God into our world (Matt. 6:10). Faith brings Heaven's provisions to Earth; our surrender brings God's presence into those provisions, multiplies them, and makes them a blessing to many.
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