Begin Your Week with a Look in the Mirror

Do you have a very accurate view of yourself? Do you believe you understand you? Are you willing to hear others as they talk with you? On the other hand, are you always getting the opinion of others about you or what you do in an effort to be liked, thanked, or otherwise complimented? Having an accurate sense of who you are and having a genuine concern for others is the hallmark of humility.

An Accurate Sense of Self Begins with Humility

When we begin to consider self, we need to acknowledge personal weakness in light of God’s power (2 Corinthians 4:7-12):

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body (2 Cor 4:7-12).

Here the Apostle Paul refers to us as jars of clay. A jar of clay or earthenware pots was inexpensive, common, and impermanent. They were thrown away, where often people collected trash in them or were otherwise cheap and disposable. The Apostle refers to us as a person, who, as Harris writes in the NIGTC, although insignificant and weak in ourselves, become God’s powerful instruments in communicating the treasure of the gospel.

Thankfully, God uses us and infills us in Christ with the Spirit. Yet, not because we are worthy in ourselves. We are weak earthen vessels.

In humility, we live and communicate the gospel.

We are called as a follower of Jesus Christ to be a model of the gospel. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. As we engage people, consider their concerns with greater priority than our own, and seek to serve them in love, we recognize that we do so in humility. As my friend Steve Viars says, “We are not all that and a bag of chips.”

We see others, serve others, and seek to love others well, while also being aware of our own weakness, tendencies to sin, and personal suffering.

*Self-Reflection Questions*

1. How willing and able am I to admit weaknesses, limits and mistakes?
2. How well do I model the openness that is a vital part of the Christian life?
   • Openness in terms of fellowship with God?
   • Openness to other people?
3. How well do I demonstrate that the Christian life is a work in progress, not a completed product?
4. How open am I to learn—even from the people I serve or to whom I talk?
5. To what extent am I closed, defensive, guarded, hypersensitive, unable to admit mistakes or receive correction?
6. How prone am I to wear my heart on my sleeve—indulging or wallowing in my limits, mistakes and weaknesses?
7. Do I have a tendency to confess my sins in a morbid or exhibitionistic manner?
8. How honest am I about my weaknesses within Scriptural boundaries?
   • Is there too much emphasis on my weakness and not enough on God’s power?
   • Am I constantly confessing, but never changing?
   • Will my confession promote God’s work in the life of the listener?

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* From Paul Tripp’s Essential Qualities of a Biblical Counselor

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