Appointed To Bear Fruit: A 90 Day JourneySample

Humble Yourself

The humble Jesus washed the feet of all His disciples. The Lord, the Great Teacher, washed their feet one by one until He reached Peter. It’s not hard to imagine how uncomfortable Peter must have felt as Jesus knelt before him. Like Peter, we are also uncomfortable when we find ourselves in situations that we know are not as they should be. We may feel bad, but how willing are we to correct the situation by doing the right thing? For example, we might find ourselves in a situation where someone wants to buy something for us so we are obligated to them. We pretend as though we don’t want it saying, “Please don’t. You don’t need to buy that for me.” But we end up accepting it anyway, even though we know we will be indebted to them. Our hearts are uneasy with what is happening, but we don’t have the courage to do the right thing. Peter’s heart was uncomfortable, so he tried to reject Jesus’ service saying, “Do you wash my feet?” His feet were dirty and needed to be washed.

When Jesus knelt before Peter, immediately Peter showed His true colors. With great pride Peter said to Jesus, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus’ humility is contrasted with Peter’s pride. Once again, Peter was telling Jesus what to do. How prideful! “You shall never wash my feet,” he told Jesus. But, Jesus wanted to do it, and Peter was forbidding him. Peter always seemed to be telling Jesus how to act. On another occasion, Jesus said, “We are going to Jerusalem, and there I will be arrested, mocked and killed.” After Jesus said this, Peter took Him aside and rebuked Him saying that Jesus should not say these things (Matt. 16:21-22). Peter thought that if Jesus kept talking about dying, then His disciples would become nervous. He believed that it was better for Jesus to conquer Jerusalem as king instead of dying as a martyr.

Be careful that, in your pride, you don’t order God around. Satan wanted to rule rather than be ruled. He wanted to be worshipped rather than give worship to God. This was Satan’s sin. It was Adam and Eve’s sin. It was also Peter’s sin. And it is ours as well. True disciples want to be humble in heart like the Lord. They don’t seek high positions for themselves, but are content in a lowly state. They don’t grow accustomed to being served by others, but are prepared to serve. As much as possible, I try to do things for myself so that others can use their time to spread the gospel, instead of taking care of me. On one occasion, I visited North Africa where they only speak French or Arabic. I only speak English and Indonesian. The pastor was prepared to drive 10 hours round-trip to pick me up at the airport. If I let him do that, he would have spent his entire day just being my driver. Instead, I told him I could get there myself. I made my way to the bus station and got to his town on my own.

Striving to do things for yourself so that you can respect other people’s time and ministry is a characteristic of humility. No one is the boss. All believers are servants. Pick up your towel! Follow the example of our Lord.

 Application:  Have you been ordering God around or submitting to Him?