A Masterpiece in the Making
January 25, 2010
Dear Friends,
Moses is described in Numbers 12:3 as “very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” So when God asks Moses to go to Pharaoh and Moses responds “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue,” (Ex. 4:10) we might assume this was just another example of Moses being humble. If we think that, we would be wrong. The passage records “the LORD’s anger burned against Moses.” God wouldn’t be angry with Moses for being humble. This was not humility on the part of Moses, but a lack of faith. Humility is a good thing. Lack of faith is a bad thing. We need to be careful not to confuse the two.
It is not uncommon for people to confuse humility with lack of faith. Humility is when we attribute the good qualities we have to God and the bad qualities we have to ourselves. These people realize that all of their talents, all of their wealth and all of their positive physical attributes are gifts from God. God gets all of the credit. They may realize and even openly acknowledge these gifts, but it does not make them conceited or give them a sense of superiority. They have a quiet confidence; not so much in themselves, but in the God who works through them. Their humble attitude is living the principle of 1 Cor. 4:7:
For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
On the other hand, there are those who cannot acknowledge the gifts they are given. They are forever downplaying their gifts from God. They look too much at themselves rather than looking at what God has done and can do through them. If you give them a compliment, instead of just saying “thank you” they will give you a list of why what you have said is not true. Sometimes this is not true humility, but a lack of faith.
A great Biblical example of lack of faith disguised as humility is found in Numbers. When the children of Israel spied out the land God had promised to them, ten of the twelve spies brought back this report.
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”(Num. 13:31-33 NIV)
We could argue that these men were humble men. However, it was not genuine humility at work here, but a lack of faith. They were looking way too much at themselves and not at God. A genuinely humble person is always looking at God.
We need to stop cutting ourselves down. We need to stop telling everyone how fat, untalented or stupid we are. God did not a mistake when he made us. The Bible tells us “we are God’s workmanship.” (Eph. 2:10 NIV) When we are too self-critical, we are criticizing God’s workmanship. We all have “flaws.” However, let’s admit those flaws through the eye of faith. The Mona Lisa has a crooked smile yet is considered one of the greatest paintings ever made. We have either talents we have been given by God or talents as yet untapped by God. He that can “do all things” is certainly capable of working with the likes of me and you. We need to stop looking at ourselves and start looking at our mighty God. There might be giants in the land, but if we look at it through the eyes of faith, the land is ours for the taking. We aren’t grasshoppers, but “more than conquerors.” We aren’t just some random guy, but a child of the Most High God. We are not a cheap print of an unknown artist in the discount bin at the dollar store, but a masterpiece in the painting by God Himself. How could we be? We have been created in the image of God.
Have a great week,
