Tue.’s Devo - Lessons in Humility

Read Luke 14:1-11 Jesus has been invited to eat with the chief Pharisees in one of their houses. I image they set him up by inviting a man with dropsy to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. Jesus knows their thoughts and asks them if it is lawful to heal on the sabbath day. No one dares to answer so he asks them if they had an ox that fell into a pit if they would pull him out on the sabbath day. Of course they would so he healed this man with the burden of his sin and pulled him out of his pit. He had noticed that they all tried to sit in the middle of the couch because it was the most honored place so he gave them another parable. If they are invited to a wedding they should not seek to sit in the most honored seat lest someone more important than them come in and they have to give up their seat and sit in the least honored seat. What they didn’t realize was that Jesus was the most honored guest and at his wedding he would be given the most honored seat and they would be humbled to sit in the least honored seats. It would be better if they humbled themselves now so that when that wedding comes they would be escorted to the front table. Jesus ended the parable with this statement: “For whosoever exalts himself will be abased; and he that humbles himself will be exalted.” I am in the midst of a very humbling situation and I am praying to glorify God in it. Being humbled is painfully sweet. It is like a pill that is hard to swallow but the benefits of the pill are healing medicine. Lord, may we truly humble ourselves before you and exalt you instead.