When my grandmother passed away, I asked my family if I could play the piano for her funeral. I wanted to do it – it seemed like the one thing I could do for my Grandma. Yet I was nervous. I was afraid of making mistakes. My family worried that my emotions would overrun my ability. I had not had the time to practice that I wanted or needed. So the night before the funeral, I said to a group of my family, “Please pray for me. I’m just not sure how well I know my music.”
An uncle replied with a slogan I’ve never been comfortable with. “God helps those who help themselves.” In other words, you should have practiced more.
More recently, I was reading James 4 in preparation for a bible study. My uncle’s words clashed against v. 6: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Doesn’t that sound contradictory to “God helps those who help themselves?”
Proud people don’t need God. They can do it themselves. They want YOU to know how much they can do it on their own. In fact, proud people struggle with the temptation to develop a God-complex , that they don’t need God because they are powerful enough to figure life out on their own. Is it any wonder God opposes such an attitude? Humble people, on the other hand, are willing to admit they don’t have their act together. They are powerless to figure life out on their own. They are out of control, helpless, dependent.
This isn’t an admission of weakness. This doesn’t mean they haven’t tried. It’s more an admission that God is God and they are not. Their dependence on God starts way before they got to the end of their own human resources. Humble people admit from the beginning that they are not big enough for the job and they need God’s Holy Spirit to partner with them.
I like the way a church camp teacher defined Mt 5:3’s usage of the term “poor in spirit” as spiritually bankrupt. It’s the recognition that I know from the get-go I can’t be all God wants me to be on my own, that I need God’s favor even though I don’t deserve any of it.
The idea that God gives grace to the humble now makes more sense to me. If grace is getting what I don’t deserve, how can God possibly give grace to a proud person who thinks they deserve it because they’ve tried their durndest and now God owes them one? It doesn’t work.
Sometimes life has a way of slapping me in the face and making me realize just how inept I am. I reached this point several weeks ago. I was in charge of VBS music. I also was to lead the worship at our church the Sunday before VBS started. My plan was to present two VBS songs during the worship service and have my VBS praise team of four girls join me.
All kinds of problems ensued. The girls were squirrelly. We had trouble scheduling practices. I constantly struggled against my vision limitation in seeing the power point videos and my aging brain in memorizing the words and motions. I had not slept well for several nights and my husband and I had, as Mark Lowry calls it, several “moments of intense fellowship” the day before. On that Sunday morning, I rose feeling fragile and broken.
“I cannot do this,” I told the Lord. “There is nothing left in me. I am supposed to go to church, act happy and loving to everyone, lead these songs I don’t know well and create this atmosphere that leads people to Jesus. I cannot do it. If you want this done, You are going to have to do it. I need Your grace to do your work and I am the first one in line to admit I don’t deserve it one bit. But this work is for Your glory not mine. I don’t want to misrepresent you, Lord so I need your help. I REALLY need your help.” If God indeed does give grace to the humble, this was the moment He could show off just what that meant.
Guess what? He did. It was like He just took over. Words came to my weary brain I didn’t know were in there. Two mothers encouraged me to go practice with the girls one more time, one of the girls told me how she had been practicing at home AND teaching her little brother the songs (wow!), the perfect reading I needed to transition into the Communion time came to my mind an hour before the service began – everything just clicked.
Many people commented afterwards how well the service went, especially about how well my team of girls did. There was so much talk that I didn’t get much of a chance to slip in who was instrumental in putting together such an awesome service. When I finally did get a word in edgewise and tell one person that it was totally God because I was in no shape that morning to make any sense to anyone, she just stared at me.
That’s ok. God gives grace to the humble. He fills in our brokeness with the salve of His compassion. Or, as Patsy Clairmont once said, He shines through cracked pots.
You know, that’s actually a smart idea. When God, in His mercy and compassion, shines through the cracks of my life, people notice the light and not the cracks. That’s the way it ought to be.
Allowing Him to shine through my brokeness – that takes humility.
What a wonderful & needed post! The problem with “God helps those who help themselves” is that it implies God is waiting on us to do something before He’ll help. If that were the case, we’d still be waiting for the Messiah! Thank God for His grace!
Well said! I love comments to my blog. You all fill in the gaps where I struggle to say. God’s grace for the humble is a hard concept to wrap our brains around, isn’t it.
I’m so glad God is a God of grace and not of performance. Thanks for such a wonderful reminder.
I am too, Davalyn. If He were a God of performance, He would have given up on me a long time ago.
I have asked God many times for his help when I am unable to do it on my own. Obviously, he is always there to help, but occasionally, I forget that and try to do it myself. I have written several posts on my blog page about humility and learning to be humble. Thank you for the reminder again.
God does such a better job than I can. It amazes me that He wants to partner with me, but He does! I’m glad the post was a blessing to you, Gloria.
Great post and one to remind us how needy we are. All of us reach points in our lives where we can’t go on, can’t perform, can’t give what’s expected. Thankfully, God is able and ready and willing to help.
And the way He helps always amazes me! Thanks for your comments, Carol.
Grace, grace, grace. His strength is perfect when my strength is gone. I depend on it so much! And this post crystallizes that truth well.
Thanks, Karla.
It’s wonderful that everything turned out good for you, and God was with you! I have cringed many times when people have repeated that saying to me. In the past–when I was young–it made me feel like more of a “failure”! Wanted to blurt out, “How? How do I do that? What more is there to do? What if I never find out how to help myself? Then God will never help me?” God helps when we ask and depend on him–as we plow on and sow the seeds.
Oh exactly, Karen, you have said it well. I had those same thoughts too. When will I finally cross the line that God unfolds his arms and says, “Okay, you’ve tried hard enough. I’ll help you now.” No! He wants us to be dependent on him from the start! Thanks for your input.
There was a time when I was completely broken, burn-out. I had always struggled with a sense of failure, and this seemed to clinch it. As I struggled to process my brokenness and complete lack of success, and as I wrestled with God, I came to understand that God was removing success only in order to put grace underneath it. I came to see that I had been trying to put grace on top of success. I thought God was being gracious in certain areas because I was succeeding in others. It would not be forever, but it was necessary to my healing.
So beautifully stated. Thanks for sharing.