II Kings 20:5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD
Are you a confident person? What does that mean? In what or whom do you have confidence? How are you confident? I remember reading a t-shirt in a backpacking store in Colorado. It had a depiction of some situation that was about to get really bad involving a camper and a grizzly bear or cliff or something with a caption that said, “Confidence is that feeling you get just before you grasp the gravity of the situation.” I’ve been there. I’ve been perfectly confident until things went south and I realized I was in big trouble.
In life, we have two things we have to battle, fear and pride. Confidence may be where we want to be, but even that can be tenuous at best if that confidence is in ourselves or in other people who are frail and temporary. Fear and pride are both a function of going through life alone. If I accomplish something great and I think it is just me, that results in pride. If I am in over my head and think I am all by myself, I end up being fearful.
II Kings 20 is the story of King Hezekiah, who in many ways was a good man. The first part of chapter 20 is the story of how God answered his prayer, delivered a city, and spared his life from a disease that would have killed him. The second part of the story happens in a much easier time when things were going well. The king of Babylon showed up, expressed some sort of interest in the miracle God had done, and Hezekiah showed him everything, the treasure, silver, gold, ointment, house of armor. Hezekiah was in some sense putting his faith and dependence in the king of Babylon and God said, “I am going to judge you because of this.” In both cases, fear and pride were governed by a recognition of God’s actual presence. That is true in our lives today as well.
Humility is the recognition of God’s presence. It is realizing that you are not alone. In verse 5 God had sent a messenger to the king who said, “You are going to die and not live.” That is very direct. The Bible says that the king turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. He asked God, and even after God had already said, “Get your house in order because you are going to die,” He sent a message back to the king and said, “Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee.” He goes on to say that He would deliver the city out of the hand of the Assyrians for His name’s sake. Here is a man who turned to God, sought God, and overcame a fearful situation because of his dependence on God.
Problems never play fair. They never hunt alone. They come in packs and they never come at the right time. I could say about many problems, “If this hadn’t happened now, I would be able to handle this problem.” Well, if it had happened at an opportune time, it wouldn’t be a problem at all. Half of what makes a problem a problem is the inopportune time at which it appears. So, humility is just the recognition of God’s presence. Here is a king who was in over his head, sought God, and had his prayer answered.
In the second half of the story Hezekiah was healthy, wealthy, and secure, and he got complacent. God said that he was going to judge him for that. To his credit, the Bible says that he humbled himself. So, in both cases, in danger and prosperity, humility is just the recognition of God’s presence in your story.
So, ask yourself two questions. First, when do I ask? That is to say, “When do I pray?” If I am taking all these problems on alone every day, then I am acting as if I am an orphan when I am not. I belong to God. God said, “I will answer your prayer,” and then He said, “I will deliver the city for My sake.” When I belong to God and give my life to Him, I can give my problems to God. My problems and my life are His. So, when do you ask?
Second, whom do you thank? It is in some ways more dangerous to be in prosperity than to be in need because when we are in need, we know we need God, but when we are in prosperity, we can fool ourselves into thinking we are self-sufficient when we are not. So, whom do you thank? That indicates whom you trusted in the first place. If I am in over my head, anxious and fearful, and somehow I get out of my situation, that automatically leads to pride. If I am in over my head and I trust God in my fear, then I need to acknowledge God in His provision for me.
So, when do you ask and whom do you thank? Any time you worry or brag you should be realizing the presence of a living God. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less, and it is the recognition of God’s presence in your life.