My Daily Devotional

My devotional today is about humility. There are many scriptures throughout the Bible where God teaches us about humility. I realized early on in my career that humility was an important part of what it takes to be a good leader. Dictators can rule and govern, but they are never respected by the people they control, but someone that is humble, kind and considerate can get much more accomplished by being a servant leader, rather than a dictator leader. Jesus was a servant as He came to help and serve others, and I believe we need to also serve others. God's greatest commandment was to love God with all our soul, mind and strength, but his second was to love others as we love ourselves. My message to you today is not to go through life with your focus on yourself or your accomplishments. Practice humility where ever you go. Think about others around you, in your jobs, your neighborhoods, your schools, or anywhere you are. Be kind, considerate, respectful to everyone, as you are the example to these people of the kind of person that should reflect the love of God. You can make a difference where ever you are by practicing humility, and serving others.

Practice Humility

“A prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself, but the heart of fools blurts out folly.”
Proverbs 12:23

The scripture above reminds me of a board member at one of the hospitals where I worked, who was always trying to impress everyone by bringing up the fact that he had graduated from Harvard Law School. No matter what the subject was he could always find some way to bring this up in a conversation, and usually wanted to dominate any conversation. Even though he evidently was a well educated man, he was never able to apply his knowledge to his job as a board member or to his profession, as he was not a very good attorney and the public and people he came into contact with quickly realized this. On this same board was another attorney who had gotten his Law Degree from a small state university who was a brilliant man, and had a well established practice in town. He was a very quiet man but when he spoke everyone listened as he always knew the solutions to any of the problems and situations the hospital encountered. Jesus talked throughout the New Testament about the Pharisees who gave the eloquent speeches, and prayed long prayers in public, but did not walk the talk, and led lives that were less than Godly. Jesus tells us that we need to humble ourselves around people, and not try to impress them by our wealth, our power, our prestige or any other means. Others need to see us as we are, Godly men and women, living Godly lives and obeying and following God’s commands. The way we live our lives needs to be our testimony to others, as they need to see us being a caring, respecting and loving individual who does not have our own individual concerns in mind, but are always thinking about others around us. I believe Jesus was this kind of man, as he humbled himself to others.