Humility, A Special Gift of Joy!

           Have you had your Joy Juice today?  In humility, we each should accept God gift of joy daily.

             I love to attend Sunday School! My parents instilled that habit in me when I was young.  I didn’t have a choice then….but, now I do and I still love Sunday School! It’s a place to be challenged to grow in our spiritual walk.

            For example, a few weeks ago, our S. S. lesson was on humility.  Our human tendency is to be “self-centered”, isnt’ it? To put ourselves and our desires before others. We can fall easily into the trap of spiritual arrogance.  

            Jesus gave us a parable in Luke 18:9-14 that teaches about the importance of humility:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

            May we humble ourselves before God and gratefully accept His gift of joy.