by F.J. Foster

Created on: February 09, 2010   Last Updated: February 18, 2010

A few years ago, my youngest daughter invited me to attend church with her. Although a member elsewhere, I gladly accepted with hopes of meeting the pastor. He was a man of longtime service to God - a pastor, teacher, and author of numerous quality books for Christians. I had read and profited from a few of those, and hoped to tell him so myself. But I wasn’t quite prepared for the man I met.

Following the service, my daughter and I were standing in the front of the church waiting for Sunday school to start, when he walked up, extended his hand, and welcomed me. Nothing about him called attention to himself. When told of my admiration for his work, he seemed genuinely pleased that God had blessed someone through something he had written. I became quickly aware, however, that he would take no credit for anything he had done.

What struck me immediately was this man’s genuine humility. For all the fame he had amassed, (Yes, you’d probably recognize his name, and no, I won’t mention it. He wouldn’t want me to.), nothing about him drew attention to himself. His whole attitude shifted the focus instantly to God. Such is the nature of Christian humility, and such is what we should seek. But, how and where do we start?

The answer is as close as our knees. We start with prayer, and for one obvious reason. We can’t hope to attain humility until … well … we humble ourselves. After all, humility (meekness) is one of the fruits of the Spirit found in Gal. 5:22, and it can’t be cultivated until we push aside our own pride. Nothing does that faster than prayer.

Prayer demolishes the stronghold of pride, and forces us to look toward God, not toward ourselves. Although the self-help books of the world might all scream “Look inward! Look inward!,” we know as Christians whatever is in there that didn’t come from God is useless. We had all that before we had Jesus, and its emptiness is part of what launched our search for Him. Why would we want to go back?

Yet our only alternative to humility is the prideful, self-centered hollowness that once ruled our lives. Going back to that after God has lifted us out is not an option. But if we know and accept this, we still face the problem of exactly what to pray for and against. The answer is simpler than some might think.

If we examine our lives, we will notice probably a number of areas in which we excel. Some might say they have none, but that isn’t an

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