He Gives Grace to the Humble

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity in my home.  Unpacking, updating addresses, new part-time job, visitors… the list goes on!  In the midst of the busyness, I have constantly been reminded of something I have been lacking… humility.

One of the many ways that I know that God isn’t done with me yet, is the realization that He tends to place me in situations that grow me, stretch me, and refine me.  Most of the time, those situations push me out of my comfort zone and make me wish I wasn’t there!  However, God has been bringing me to my knees and prodding my heart to rely on HIM for my daily strength and perseverance.

Wow.  He has been humbling me and constantly bringing me to the point of breaking so I can only rely on Him.  In my pride, I want to hold on and do it myself.

While in the military, I frequently found myself wanting to be “one of the guys”.  My career field had very few women, and most of the time, I was considered one of the guys anyway.  I would try and try and try to push myself to be like one of them but would fail over and over again.  I wasn’t relying on God for my strength to get through each day.  I thought the only way to do that was to be someone I wasn’t.  I was forcing myself to be someone other than who God made me to be.  Looking back, I now know that He was using those, oftentimes, humiliating circumstances to humble me.  I wish I had realized that God was trying to teach me that lesson!  I’m thankful for that lesson and I’m still learning it to this day!

We just finished unpacking around here and during that time I spent a lot of time thinking of how we ended up here.  I am thankful for this time of introspection because the Lord has used it to humble me.  There’s that word again!  I think I’m finally starting to get it!  None of these abundant blessings are from me or my husband.  Everything has come from the Lord.  All of it has been sovereignly orchestrated by the hands of our Creator.  I am humbled.  I am humbled, that He not only loves me and my husband more than we can ever imagine, but I am humbled knowing that He has chosen us to bless in this way.  He loves us so intimately, that He knows our every need and every desire of our hearts.  He has opened doors and closed them and they were all for our good and His Glory.

During this time of blessing in our lives, I am reminded (and humbled) that this does not promise that life will be easy.  The Christian life does not promise a life of easy living.  I know that there will be hardships to come, but we are also equipped with the Holy Spirit, God’s Word and fellow believers to help us through whatever those hardships might be.

I know that God will never leave us or forsake His people, as long as we remain faithful to Him and cling to Him, He will provide for us to get through the trials of this life.