"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus." Philippians 2:5
I have found that the longer I walk with the Lord, the more concerned I am with what God is doing in me than in what He is doing through me.
“Have this attitude…”
An attitude is a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something and it is typically
reflected in a person’s behavior. The secret of Jesus’ life was His inner disposition that was reflected
in all He said and did. In other words, His attitude shaped His life and we are called to have the same one.
The more I think and reflect on Jesus — His life and His message — the more convinced I become
that the greatest thing He ever taught and modeled was humility.
“…learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart…” — Matthew 11:29
Jesus didn’t come to be served, but to serve. He never used His position, His title, or His authority
for His sake. Rather, He used it on behalf of everyone else.
His primary concern in life was to glorify His Father (see John 12:28) and He lived off of lovingly and fearfully obeying Him (see John 4:34).
He was completely and fully dependent on His Father. He would often say things like:
“I did not come on My own initiative.”
“My teaching is not My own.”
“The Son can do nothing of Himself.”
“The word which you hear is not Mine.”
Jesus became nothing so that His Father could become everything. As a result, He inherited the
name above every other name (see Philippians 2:9).
Jesus humbled Himself first in His attitude, which then produced a lifestyle of it.
He was born in humility, lived in humility, and died in humility.
Time and time again, Jesus taught that the greatest in the kingdom were the least, the ones who
became like children, and those who would be servants (see Luke 9:46-48; Matthew 20:20-25;
Matthew 23:1-12; Luke 22:24-27). In other words, it’s the humble that are the greatest.
Humility is the byproduct of when God becomes everything and self becomes nothing. It is not sin
that humbles us; it’s God’s goodness, His kindness, and His grace. It’s natural to have the attitude
we are told to have when we see God rightly and ourselves rightly in light of His nature.
The older I get in God, the more I want formed in me what motivated Jesus’ own life. Too often we
are concerned about the fruit of the matter when God is more concerned about the root of the
matter… the heart of the matter.
We care more about the anointing when God cares more about our character.
“In striving after the higher experiences of the Christian life, the believer is often in danger of seeking the more visible virtues, such as joy, boldness, zeal, contempt of the world, self-sacrifice—even the old Stoics taught and practiced these—rather than the gentler graces, those which are more distinctly connected with Jesus’ cross and death to self: poverty of spirit, meekness, humility, lowliness.” — Andrew Murray - Humility
It’s one thing to want to do what Jesus did; it’s another to want to have His attitude.
Let us make seeking humility our chief concern and let us get lost in the vastness of God’s goodness
that will produce this attitude within us.