Jesus Christ is the author of our salvation. He initiates, provides, grants, and secures all that we need for salvation and spiritual growth. We must trust Him but He grants us faith. In love and for our sake we are told to humble ourselves, too. Humility is a dynamic factor in our relationship with Jesus and thus our spiritual formation.

We recognize two aspects of humility. In humility, 1) we acknowledge our weakness, our need and 2) we trust God to love us and to meet us in our need both in His way and in His timing (1 Peter 5:6-7). In humility our weaknesses don’t shame us, our needs don’t embarrass us, they drive us to Christ and in seeing Him humility submits to Him.

In humility and submission, we allow God to love and exalt us His way. In humility and submission, we let God tell us the truth about Him, about us; we welcome Christ to lead us, protect us, and provide for us, again in His way and in His timing. Humility deepens fellowship with Christ and provides for genuine freedom (contrary to the world’s dangerous insistence that it’s rebellion which leads to freedom).

At our church, we’ve defined a simple process for spiritual growth and life change: In The Bible. In Community. Serving God. Pretty simple. We engage with Jesus Christ through the Word, through community, and through serving God.

Yet, reading the Bible does not guarantee spiritual growth. Being in community can be enjoyable but is not necessarily life transforming.

This is where humility comes in.

God’s word is meant to be life changing (John 17:17). As we open God’s Word trusting this, in humility, we open the Word to meet the Lord, to see Him, allowing Him to speak to us in our need, our weakness. This is when God uses His Word to change us! In humility, we meet Him in His Word to be addressed by God, to be healed, taught, strengthened, affirmed, corrected, and changed. In humility and submission, we welcome God to speak to us, to love us, to lead us. Thus, we meet Him eager to follow, to obey Him. Pride does not understand this. This lies deep in the heart of humility.

Pastor Steve Behlke is at Grace United Church in Northampton, Massachusetts.