Hard Lessons to Learn
So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” – 1 Samuel 19:23-24.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” – John 17:24.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. – Philippians 2:5-7.
Although he lived in the splendor of the magnificent Russian Winter Palace, gilded in gold and furnished with all extravagance, Czar Nicolas I slept in a narrow, hard bed. He also insisted that his son Alexander learn humility by sleeping in a similar bed. Perhaps Alexander would have learned more sufficient humility had he gone to the peasants, eaten their potato soup, and slept on their straw mats on cold, drafty floors. As Alexander II, he did express enough humility to free the serfs in 1861. But there was only so much humility he could learn from sleeping on a hard, narrow bed, while surrounded by ostentation that would one day be his.
To assume the lowliest humiliation, God sent the Person who had, with him, been the object of the greatest glory. Christ emptied himself of all the prerogatives of godhood and humbled himself to servanthood. Jesus proved that far from being a condition imposed from outside, humility arises from within in response to God’s call for service. For the highest possible responsibility, God chose the only One who could truly proclaim himself “humble in heart.”
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 