To be exalted and favored by the Lord would be a wonderful status to claim. However, the requirements for such a divine determination are steep. Fortunately, there is one basic requisite that needs to be met in order to be exalted by the Lord of all creation: humility. Humility is the essential posture both in how we come before the Lord and how we relate to other people.
Jesus clearly indicates that those who wish to be affirmed and exalted by the Lord need to take on the position of the lowliest and most humble among us (Matt. 23:11-12). This is a matter of attitude. An attitude of humility means that we strive to eschew our self-worth and pride in order to live out lives of service and compassion. Reality points out that when we take on an attitude of humility, we will be so much more positioned to care for those who we might normally consider beneath us.
Think of Jesus. Although He was in very nature God, took on the lowliest of forms so as to serve the Lord and all of mankind unto death (Phil. 2:5-7). This is the mind and attitude that we should make our own. Christ is our example, humbling Himself so severely that He suffered a sinner's death, hanging naked from a cross along the roadside of Jerusalem: humility.
Humility is not an easy task because it is meant to be a comprehensive worldview by which we live the whole of our lives. This means that in every circumstance and every situation we may encounter, we will go into it with a servant's attitude and a humble heart to love and care as Christ did and does for us. This is an all-encompassing identity. Let us then strive take on the heart of a humble servant, looking to Christ who modeled love categorically in all humility. In this way, we will truly be able to live out the love that God has called us to and live the way Christ asks us to live.
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