Humility - The Way To Win the Battle Before It's Fought

In his book The Art of War, Sun-Tzu said this, “Every battle is won long before it is ever fought.” Nothing could be truer than this statement as it pertains to the Christian life. The problem with man is that he thinks he can control his little world and the higher up a man goes in a society, the bigger area of control he thinks he has. In reality man has very little control.

It seems that one of the greatest areas of contention in theology today is found in the teaching of the sovereignty of God. While I can understand the unsaved man hates the idea of God being in control, for the life of me I cannot understand the Christian who finds this concept unacceptable.

The longer I study the Bible and the more I seek a deeper relationship with God, the more I see the need for humility to become my end goal in life. First of God’s Word tells me humility is an important trait. First of all salvation is dependent on it.  Job speaks of this in Job 22:29 saying, "When you are cast down, you will speak with confidence, And the humble person He will save.” The Psalms declare it as we see from Psalm 76:9, “When God arose to judgment, To save all the humble of the earth.” James speaks of it in James 4:6, “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."

We cannot save ourselves. In order to receive the free gift of salvation we must believe by faith that Christ died on the cross for us. We must drop the notion that we can do anything at all to contribute to our salvation as we read in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” This is the first step of humility when one becomes Born Again. Even the first step towards God is not of our doing but His as we see from John 6:44, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

The truth is our lives are dependent on God. We like to take credit for our successes in this life. we brag of our academic accomplishments, of our progression at work, of our athletic accomplishments, and our heroics on the battlefield. We even take credit for our children’s great deeds. Yet scripture is clear, all good things come from God. Hear God’s word from Acts 17:24-26, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.” The bottom line is that everything we have and everything we accomplish in life is a result of what God has blessed us with.

Read the Old Testament and observe carefully the men and women God chose to do His work. They were drunks, prostitutes, pagans, murderers, adulterers and on and on the list goes. Look at the life of Esau and Jacob. Truthfully which one would you choose to be the leader of God’s chosen people? Jacob was a lying, conniving con man. He stole the birthright from his own brother and did so by deceiving his own father.

So what does God look for when choosing those who will serve Him? He looks for a man who will come to the point of humility by recognizing his own weakness and failures. He looks for a heart that will receive discipline and react in repentance when confronted by the truth of his own sin. Jacob did that. David did too. How about you? We must understand the depths of our sinfulness and cry out in humility to our God who loved us so much He sent His only Son to die in our place and to pay the penalty we deserve.

This leads us back to the statement of Sun-Tzu, “Every battle is won long before it is ever fought.” The Christian life is no easy way; it is a day to day battle. Our goal is to become like Christ so that we, like Him, can go out into the world sharing the Gospel and being a light to this dark world we live in. The Christian life is a battle-filled life but we fight from victory, not for victory. Jesus won the war on the cross at Calvary but each day we must fight the good fight of faith. But the battles we fight will be won before we fight them. They will be won by the time we spend in reading, studying, and meditating on God’s Word, hiding it in our hearts that we might not sin against Him (Psalm 119:12). They will be won by the time we spend on our knees praying for God’s hand to upon us (Philippians 4:5-7). They will be won by humbling ourselves and confessing to God that He is our strength and our only hope (Psalm 20:7).

The victory will be won in this life through humility. Call on the Lord this very day. Come to Him in humility. He shall not turn you away.