THINK TOGETHER.
Have you ever been honored for something? What was it?
READ TOGETHER
Proverbs 15:33. The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
To be honored is to be praised, or "lifted up." Like when you win a trophy, or make the honor roll at school. Maybe your mom or dad has been honored at work. In life people can be honored for an achievement or for a good deed without being humble. A very proud and bossy student will still get the honor roll certificate. The athlete who is a show-off will still win the trophy.
But God only honors humility, not achievements. What is humility? Humility is when you put yourself second, after others. Humility thinks about others instead of thinking only of yourself. Humility knows that any good thing we do is only because God gave us the gifts we have and the time and place we needed to do it. Other people might honor you, but if you are not humble God will not honor you. But God loves lifting up the lowly, the poor, the struggler, the sinner who humbly relies on him alone.
The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us that only by humbling ourselves and repenting of our sins can we be honored by God and forgiven. Only by following Jesus and not trying to be a know-it-all or a show-off can we live a good life of love. In fact, the humble person doesn't even really care about being honored by people, they want only the honor of God.
Jesus is the ultimate example of this isn't he? Jesus humbled himself and left Heaven to come to earth to save us. He didn't come as a king, or a warrior; he came as a baby in a manger. And he went all the way to the cross, carrying our sins for us, in the greatest humility ever. But he didn't stay down low did he? God raised Jesus from the dead and honored him in Heaven again, seating him on the throne of the universe! Now we can be honored by God too. How? By going lower and lower into admitting our sin and trusting in Christ for all we need.
Because of Jesus we will be honored in Heaven one day.
With Jesus we can live a humble life before God.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Name some people in the Bible who were humble but God honored them (Ruth, David, Moses, Isaiah).
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, you humbled yourself for me. Help me to humble myself for you. Amen.
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