July 7, 2026

Business by the Book

I Peter 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

Humility is a fine line. I once saw a church bus, on its side was the name of the church and under that the title and name of the preacher. It said “The most humble Reverend Dr. Pastor So and So, Bishop.”  Listen, if a person has to say that they are humble they probably are not. Especially if it is a part of their title!

God’s Word has much to say about being humble. In today’s verse Peter, one who struggled in maintaining humility, says to Humble yourselves...  Perhaps if we could find a way to humble ourselves we would not be humbled by circumstances or by others. To me humility is kind of like brilliance, you may not be able to describe it, but when you are around it you know it.

Notice to whom we should humble ourselves, …under the mighty hand of God...  It is one thing to forfeit humility before man, but it is a serious problem to fail to humble oneself before Almighty God. One only has to back up one book in the Bible, to the book of James to read …God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. (James 4:6)  Or, just back up one verse from today’s verse and read …for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. There are numerous people in life that resist me; I certainly do not need the Lord resisting me.

If we humble ourselves before God we have a wonderful promise …he may exalt you in due time. Isn’t this what most desire, to be exalted? However, there seems to be a paradox here. We desire to be exalted, but the way to exaltation is through humility. But such humility seems to be opposite of the desire to be exalted. This is by the design of God. For the entire Christian life is a paradox, we get by giving, to be first we become last, the greatest of all is the servant of all, we live by dying to self, and we ascend in exaltation by descending in humility. No wonder so few understand.

Dr. William Howe