In the fourth installment of the blog series, “Worship as a Lifestyle,” Amanda Cook shares about what it looks like to live a life embodied by humility.
I was thinking about the subject of humility and becoming a servant. Jesus embodied humility, and empowers us to embody the same. I have found myself asking the Lord, “What is the key to humility?” I believe there’s an earnest desire in our hearts to walk humbly– to walk in humility.
We’re at this stage where the church is recognizing that greatness doesn’t steal from God’s glory.
How do we get to a place where humility is a byproduct of our lifestyle, where it’s something that we walk in? I feel like one of the keys to this is intimacy.
Humility without intimacy leads to loveless servants and loveless serving.
Trying to be humble without being in love with Jesus is impossible. If we choose oneness with Him, if we choose to be vulnerable with Him, if we invite Him into the deep place and walk with Him daily, humility will become an extension of who we are.
Isn’t it amazing that God wants to be close to us? Isn’t it amazing that His original desire and intent for mankind was to walk with them in the cool of the day? When the Trinity was imagining creating human beings, I can imagine them saying, “Let us make man in our own image.” Because we want to relate to him, and we want someone who can relate to us. So often, we get to this place where we camp out on one piece of who God is, we limit ourselves to that, and we think that eternity is the thing that happens to us when we die. We think our death is when forever begins.
Forever doesn’t begin after we die, forever is actually happening now.
If we were to grasp the fact that God, who always was, is, and will be, has invited us to know Him and be known by Him, we would devote our lives to searching out what that means. I guarantee that humility will become a byproduct.
It’s amazing to me that Jesus not only came to restore the original intent of God being able to walk with us in the garden, but that after He ascended to heaven, and even now, He prays for us. That’s amazing. Can you just say that out loud? “Jesus Christ is praying for me.” John 17:20 says, “I do not pray for these alone, but also, for those who will believe in Me, through the word. That they all may be one, as You Father, are in Me, and I in You. That they also, may be one in us. That the world may believe that You sent Me.”
He is constantly convicting me of the closeness that my heart longs for, to be with Him. That my heart was made for it. The point I’m making is this, not only are we invited to a wedding, but we still don’t understand yet that we are the bride. We’ve attended the wedding, we’ve gotten that far, but we’re still waiting for the bride to come down the aisle — you’re the bride! This is the kind of closeness you want, this is the kind of intimacy that He wants. But the thing about intimacy is that it cannot be imposed on you. It’s not something you get through impartation, it’s not something you get by someone forcing anything on you.
I hope that the eternal love of God that you already know to be true, ignites that hunger in you, for more of Him.
That you would not be satisfied to know simply that there’s a wedding that’s going to happen, but that you would actually engage, as the bride. This isn’t about being male or female– He uses wedding analogy all throughout scripture. This is not just for women to get. We are ALL the bride.
The world knows if you’ve been loved. It comes out of you, it emanates from your skin, it’s all over your face. You can tell when people are in love. Some of us don’t know that we are that loved, and are called to be the bride before anything else. When God the Father said He was proud of Jesus, it wasn’t after Jesus’ years in public ministry, it was before He did anything public. “This is my beloved son, whom I am well pleased in.” We have it all wrong. We’re so caught up in the economy of it all. Even when we go to the Lord for revelation, sometimes it’s like, “Okay, I need a word for the nations and generations. Tell me first, then I will tell them all.” Which is really sweet, because your heart is to see people encounter Him. But I want you to know:
He wants to tell you things, just because He wants you to know Him. He wants you to be one with Him.
He wants you to be wrapped up in this circle, gazing at the Father, gazing at the Son, being full of the Holy Spirit. You won’t have to try to drum anything up, and your serving will begin to look a lot more like a bride who has been loved. This will lead you to the greatest acts of service of your life. You’ll see it from an eternal perspective, should you choose this. Should you choose to become one. Not for any other reason than to respond to that eternity in your heart that is begging for the love that He has for you. His love is new every morning, there is a new facet to discover, every single morning.
For more of the “Worship as a Lifestyle” blog series, check out Brian Johnson’s post about overcoming anxiety and choosing God through the pain. Click here to read more.