Admitting Your Sins & Ten Characteristics of Humility

Ten Characteristics of Humility   1)      The humble person will ask for help when he needs it. a.       The proud man wants to do it all him self and all his way. b.       A proud man, even if he asks for help out of desperation, he still wants everything done his way. If it is not done his way, he will let it be known he is not happy with it. c.       The proud person gives no one liberty to express their own creativity in a unique way that is different from their own. 2)      Humble men and women give credit where credit is do. a.       They are quick to give God glory for anything good that is accomplished through them and when others help them do things they always remember to thank those people, and to point some of the credit towards them. b.       Haughty proud people use other people to get where they want to go and never let       anybody know it is because of those people that they are where they are at. 3)      A humble person is quick to forgive, difficult to offend, and waits on God for vindication.                  a.  They are not touchy because all their life is not about them. 4)      The humble person is patient and long-suffering with the weakness of others. a.       Because they know by the grace of God there go I. b.       Galatians 6:1 – 1 Brethren, if any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] (jm “and you know that is us”)should let him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself, lest you should be tempted also. 2 Bear (endure, carry) one another’s burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (jm “which we know is the law of love”) (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it]. 3 For if any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another’s load] when he is nobody [of superiority except in his own estimation], he deceives and deludes and cheats himself. 5)      The Humble are peace lovers – they are makers and maintainers of peace.        a.  They go the extra mile to keep peace. And believe me if you are going to walk in               peace: 1)        There are going to be times were you are going to have to swallow  Your pride 2)        There is going to times when you are not going to have the last word. 3)        There are going to be times when you are going to have to zip your lip and not say that one last thing you like to say. 4)        There is going to be times when you will have to say, “well God if I am right and I need to be proven to be in the right then I will leave it up to you; but give me the grace to shut-up.  There are so many things we say that are prideful statements. “Well I would or I wouldn’t if I were you”. 6)      The Humble man is a servant. a.       He serves others; he lives with the attitude of being a blessing not being blessed. 1)        Read John 13 and ask yourself how long it has been since you’ve         washed any feet. The whole thing is not about literally getting a pan         out and washing feet, it is a principle of doing unpleasant things for        people. I love verse 17: “If you know these things happy and blessed         are you if you do them. b.       On purpose do some things for people that would rather be distasteful to you. Just to make sure you get that haughty attitude that you think that you are better than someone else is. Let me tell you something, the higher you are promoted in position the more you have to watch that attitude. There is nothing worse than a key leader that has an attitude that every body is beneath them and they are to good to do a bunch of stuff. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. What goes up can come down a whole lot faster than how it went up. 1)        We need more reverential fear and awe. 2)        We need to be afraid to hurt people and to be mean to people. c.       There are times when we need to discuss things we and need to say things but we need to say it cautiously.  And we need to say only what we have to say and not get into enjoying it. 7)      A humble person is VERY thankful. a.       Don’t be the kind of person who God is starts to do something for you, maybe through another person or whatever. You are so thankful, you are so grateful for what they are doing you are expecting them to do even more. Don’t get so accustomed to blessing that you don’t keep thanking God for them. 8)      The Humble person has a tender conscience and is quick to repent. a.       If they hurt some body it doesn’t take them very long to say they are sorry please        forgive me. b.       If they do something wrong they are very quick to ask God’s forgiveness; they are       tender in conscious. 9)      The humble person sees and readily admits their weaknesses. a.       I don’t have a problem telling people what is wrong with me. I think it helps        people our weakness’ as well as our strengths. b.       I think it helps people to be able relate to us if  we share the things that we are not        so good at as well as the things that we are good at. 10)   The humble person gladly receives God’s chastisement. a.       They want God to correct them; they want God to show them what they are doing wrong. I would like to close with a scripture 1 Corinthians 15:10 – (Paul talking)             But by the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not [found to be] for nothing (fruitless and without effect). In fact, I worked harder than all of them [the apostles], though it was not really I but the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God which was with me. You know we sometimes talk about how hard we work             He said God gave me grace, I took that grace and I worked so hard.  We can get into how hard we work but you know what?  All I have to do is look at my calendar for one year, and I know full well there was no way I could have done that. If it wouldn’t have been God’s sustaining me and working through me and energizing me I couldn’t have done it. I love what Paul said “I am what I am, I took his grace and I worked really hard; oh by the way even the work you saw me do, wasn’t really me, it was just God manifesting himself  through me in another way”.   From the teaching called "Attitudes of the Mind" if you want to know more.