Much can be learned about a person by observing his or her way of walking. Lawyers know that bearing is more than a matter of mechanics and posture. Each person's walk is expressive of the kind of person he or she is. Cheerfulness, decisiveness, even honesty, may be revealed by how the person walks.
Scripture often uses walking as a metaphor for one's way of life before God. At the dawn of human history, we read of godly Enoch, whose entire life was summarized in only a few words: "And Enoch walked with God, and was not; for God took him." (Gen. 5.22).
What specifically are we to understand concerning this matter of walking humbly with God? We do not have far to look. The Lord Jesus Christ taught and lived humility. In His humility we see a holy boldness, a sure-footedness that eludes those whose vision is dulled by self-absorption. Andrew Murray describes our Lord's walk this way:
It is in this, above and before everything, in which the conformity to Jesus consists: being and doing nothing of ourselves, that God may be all. Here we have the root and nature of humility. It is because this is not understood or sought after, that our humility is so superficial and so feeble. We must learn of Jesus, how He is meek and lowly of heart. He teaches us where true humility takes its rise and finds its strength - in the knowledge that it is God who worketh all in all, that our place is to yield to Him in perfect resignation and dependence, in full consent to be and to do nothing in ourselves. This is the life Christ came to reveal and to impart - a life to God that came through death to sin and self. If we feel that this life is too high for us and beyond our reach, it must but the more urge us seek it in Him; it is the indwelling Christ who will live in us this life. (see, Murray, Humility, Chapt. 3)
Where will we walk today? Let us consider the consciousness-raising thought that we, the body of Christ, are the means by which Jesus walks our streets, our courtrooms and schools. He wants to be more than an example to us - He is to be our very life (Col. 3:4). The One who said of Himself "I am meek and lowly of heart" indwells and empowers us to live His life as we look to Him in faith.
Lord Jesus Christ, it is from considering Your life that I begin to grasp my own need of humility. Humility is altogether foreign to my human nature. Yet, I sense that the very last thing I need is to be absorbed with myself, even with my own lack in this area. Today, I will look away from my need to Your sufficiency. Live in me this day, that I may be a medium through which You express Yourself in my sphere of influence. Teach me to live the "not-I-but-Christ life."
~ With thanks to Brent McBurney, Director of Attorney Ministries, Christian Legal Society
No comments:
Post a Comment