Deeper Still by phil mccallum

Scripture
But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.” Acts 16:37

Observation
Paul was a humble man. The evidence of humility is not just to be found in our ability to bow down but also in being able to stand up. He and Silas humbly accepted their condition in prison. They had been beaten with broomsticks and tossed into an inner dungeon. Dank, damp and dark, they sang hymns to God, saying in so many words that God is to be praised no matter the season. But when the town officials tried to cover up their injustice, Paul stood tall, pulled out his passport and demanded just treatment.

Both of these acts are humble. It is humility to accept circumstances and it is also humility to change them. What is the difference? In one case, there was nothing that could be done. At best, Paul and Silas could have clanged their tin cups on the prison bars, but that was about it. However, even though nothing could be done, Paul and Silas knew that God was up to something. When the town fathers tried to dismiss them without acknowledging that they had broken the law by beating them, humility would not let that pass. Sometimes humility is letting God stand up for us, and other times humbleness is God standing tall inside of us.

Humility is not a doormat life. While we are bowed low in humility, inwardly there is a sense that we are still standing up. A human person is not a follower, he is a leader. A humble person is not passive, she is in control. Humility is knowing who we are and using that to serve others; humility is knowing who we are not and depending totally on the Lord.

Application
There are two postures of humility. I want to be a humble man today, sometimes passing and praising and other times standing up and speaking out. In either one, it is who God is, what I am not, and who I am in him that maters most.

Prayer
Father, teach me the posture of humility you want me to take moment by moment.

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Scripture
A man’s pride will bring him low,
But a humble spirit will obtain honor. Proverbs 29:23

Observation
Dr. Wingrove Taylor was a stately man. With the lilt of a Caribbean accent, greying hair against his rich black skin, he looked every bit the church statesman that he was. An astute orator, his preaching skills had won him the respect of the West Indies where he was the General Superintendent of his denomination. Yet humility seemed to be his middle name. While speaking at an international conference for his church, Dr. Taylor was seen peddling a bicycle in his neatly pressed suit. He had been offered a rental car to take him to his hotel. But the seasoned veteran turned it down. He explained with a twinkle in his eye, “The bicycle is good for my heart.”

I think Dr. Taylor had more in mind than just his cardiovascular system. In a gathering of many leaders, he knew that the humble way would do his spirit good. It wasn’t his speaking gift that led him to the honour of leadership. It was his humility.

Pride is a bull’s-eye that attracts attack. Even those without discernment can detect pride and they hate it. God detests it as well. Natural and supernatural events happen to give a person a chance to be humble.

Humility is the most stable place, for the ground is always steady at the bottom. Humility is attractive and in time awarded. But to the humble the rewards don’t matter. Thomas Edison kept his medallions in canning jars on a shelf. That’s the attitude of the honourable.

Application
Being in the low place is not a choice in life, it is inevitable. The only choice I have is whether I will be there willingly or unwillingly. Today I choose to be low so that at least my lowness can be of use to God and bring him glory. Corrie ten Boom, when applauded, would lift her hands and eyes to heaven as if lifting up a bouquet. She would explain that she was just giving her flowers back to God.

Prayer
Father, today I embrace Jesus and let his humility soak into my heart. Amen.

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Press the arrow to listen to “You are Here” by Hillsong London while you read today’s devotion about humility.

Scripture
So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel. Numbers 14:4-5

Observation
Numerous times Moses’ leadership was challenged, and each time he took the same odd response. He face-planted in the dust in front of his foes. How vulnerable. How degrading. Yet how much like the humble heart of a strong leader.

It is clear that a person is secure in God’s appointment if he or she can humble self in front of opponents. What looked to others like weakness, was in fact a sign of prowess. Moses was a secure man, so he wasn’t afraid to be exposed in front of his enemies.

In the dust he could see God’s will clearly. Every time he face-planted, Moses would rise, dust himself off and speak words of truth and clarity. Humility is where we hear God best.

Application
I want the security that Moses had, not of a swagger but of humility. The only thing I have is Jesus. Everything else is superfluous. He is all I have and he is all I need.

Prayer
Father, today I face-plant myself before you and ask that I might see the world around me more clearly. Amen.

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Press the arrow to listen to Casting Crowns sing “I Am Yours” while reading today’s devotion about assurance.

Scripture
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. Romans 8:16

Observation
My relationship with Christ can become so very complicated. If the Bible were not enough, preachers and theologians weigh in and sometimes weigh down forward movement with complexities. But my relationship with God the Father, through Jesus Christ, does not get more basic than Romans 8:16. God’s Holy Spirit speaks to my human spirit and reminds me that I’m in the family.

Romans 8:16 is the pilot light inside of me. There may be many other fires to burn, but this little flame will start them all. One cannot heat a house with a pilot light, but then again one cannot start a fire without it. I peer into my gas fireplace and see the reassuring blue flame. I know that the device stands ready to spring into action.

I need to mind the Spirit’s pilot light in me. It isn’t a danger that the light will go out as much as it is that I will get so complicated that I will forget that it is there. Knowing, straight from the Holy Spirit, that I belong in the family of God is the most precious bit of information I can receive at any time. I must keep coming back to that. At moments like this, I recall the words of Karl Barth, the Swiss theologian who wrote his 14-volume theology. When asked what was the most profound thought in all of those books, he said, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Application
When I call sinners to repentance, to cry out for mercy, to receive forgiveness, do I make the way too simple by just reciting a prayer? The radical Methodists of the 1730s would implore the penitent to persist in prayer until they had received Romans 8:16 and that they could testify that their light was burning.

And for me, does my walk become too complicated because I forget to check for my pilot light? There is great comforting in seeing that steady, blue flame. To be loved by the Father is all that I really need to know.

Prayer
Father, thank you for the light that is burning in my heart. I remember when it was first lit. You have never let it go out. I would like, even today, to see just such a light burn in someone who has never had a light burn in the cold, inner place before. Let my light shine, and let it attract someone to know you. Amen.

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Press the arrow to listen to Graham Kendrick lead “Meekness and Majesty” while reading today’s devotion on meekness.

Scripture
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5

Observation
When I was a boy in primary school, my teachers would write on my report card, “Philip has a quiet voice.” After the parent-teacher interview, my mother would spread those blue pages out on the dining room table for me to read. If there was any comment I despised, it was that one. I did not want to be quiet. I felt I had much to say. But for some reason I couldn’t turn up my volume.

I’m beginning to wonder if God crafted me with a volume-suppressing switch in my vocal chords for a reason. Instead of chafing against what God has given, I must be thankful. His call to all of us is to be gentle. Meekness and gentleness is not a robust word that rallies us to action. I like war movies like anyone else, where heroes take action. But it is the gentle who get it all in the end according to Jesus.

Gentleness does not imply avoidance, compromise, appeasement or anything of the like. There is a message and a mandate but the way of getting there is tactful and wise, full of listening silence and enveloping love.  The results of the gentle way are more powerful than dynamite. A small creek can erode a massive canyon without a blast of explosives. There is power in the deliberate persistence of gracious tough love.

Application
I want to inherit the earth, for I am an ambitious person. But I don’t always like Jesus’ way of getting there. It requires submission and sometimes humiliation. Being walked on and talked over is part of the side effects of the path of gentleness. Gentleness requires listening when I want to interrupt, patience when I want to explode, consideration when I want to object, and more time than I have to give, or so I think. But a person make a choice early on whether he or she will really trust the simple path of Jesus. I had a friend who called this the “long slow curve” of relationships and it is that bend in the road that makes all of the difference.

Prayer
Father, let the gentleness of Jesus pervade me. I know that your Son feels anger greatly. He did not mince his words. And yet, his course on earth, was one of truth pitched with a graceful arc. When my rights, my objections, my impatience, my importance play forte, let the piano of the Holy Spirit take me over. You have made me to be meek, so help me to be a gentle man. Amen.

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Press the arrow to listen to Brandon Heath sing “Give Me Your Eyes” while reading today’s devotion on the humility of ministry.

Scripture
Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” John 4:8

Observation
Males the world over have learned that the fastest way to get a woman to do what they do not want to do is to look helpless. When men stumble around in the kitchen or fumble around for keys and the nurturing instinct of the female is aroused and she speaks the phrase the male longs to hear: “What are you looking for?”

Jesus looked helpless and he got far more than a drink of water, the heart of a woman in need gushed out her deepest secrets and found peace with God. There is a habit in his ministry for Jesus to appear helpless. He asked Peter to borrow his boat. He asked John to care for his mother. He asked the servants to fill the water jars. He asked the little boy for his lunch.

The thought of the eternal Son of the I Am, the Creator of all, and the Lord of all asking for help is quite disarming. Jesus asked for help not because he needed it, but because we humans need all the help we can get.

Jesus asked for help because there is no faster way to both flatter and humble a proud person then to be obligated to their assistance. While Peter felt inward pride that Jesus was using his boat as a pulpit, little did he realize that the Master had begun the first step of humbling the crusty fisherman’s heart.

Application
Jesus has asked me to serve him, not because he needs my help, but because I need his. Every act of ministry humbles me, because my pride is revealed. I must remember in my vain moments, that he, who used a donkey to preach a sermon to a prophet, has many ways to get his work done. God has stooped low to use me. He has chosen me to humble me so that I will open up my heart to his so that I will follow him.

Prayer
Father, thank you for asking me to help you. I know that I need it. You are doing more in me than through me. Do your work in me more deeply. Amen.

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Press the arrow to listen to “Stand in Awe of You” by Phillips, Craig and Dean.

Scripture
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 1 Corinthians 7:13-14

Observation
There is one simple summary of Solomon’s classic prayer: When life gets hard, don’t harden, be humble. There are many stages of this prayer: pray, seek, turn. But the first step is to humble.

Usually when life gets hard, we harden. We become self-reliant, calloused and defensive. At best we think it is up to us. At worst we imagine that God is mad at us. Either way, we turn to ourselves for answers.

But when we chose to soften in hard times a chain reaction begins. Instead of turning to ourselves for answers, we pray. Instead of turning to others, we seek God’s face. Instead of perpetuating wrong choices, we turn.

Application
Could it be that hardship is an invitation to re-calibrate? This invitation comes from our Lord who wants to soften toward us. He wants to hear, forgive and heal. But first we must humble.

Prayer
Father, I want to stiffen in hard times. Please help me to humble. Amen.

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