A Year of Prayer: Season One Weekday DevotionalsSample

‘You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.’ (2 Samuel 22:28 NIV)

God has a special love for the humble, the poor, the outcast, and the needy. It’s a beautiful sounding sentiment, but in practice? It’s a weird and wonderful thing.

We idolise and look to strong and courageous leaders, to the wealthy or those who seem especially ‘blessed’, to the loud, convincing, forthright, or successful. We love the beautiful and the daring, the self-confident and the influential.

When we little children were offered the space to dream about what we wanted to be when we grew up, it’s unlikely a single one of us had written ‘humble.’ Something powerful is bubbling beneath the surface of scripture this week, begging to be explored.

The chapter in Proverbs 30 is written by a man who is only named once, here, in scripture. Named as ‘Agur’ in verse 1, he says, ‘Surely, I am only a brute, not a man; I do not have human understanding. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I attained to the knowledge of the Holy One.’ (Proverbs 30:2-3 NIV)

Agur sets himself up as one who hopes to be deeply humble, searching God for God’s wisdom and accrediting nothing to his own nouse, strength, or power. In this state of discerning humility, Agur observes that wicked people seek to devour the poor, using their clever speech and arrogant posture to rule over others and constantly take more.

God will not honour or allow that. We must carefully position ourselves in a posture of humility to ask God if we are unknowingly doing the same. Have I taken from others in a place of lack? Have I used my words and position to steamroller others into doing my will?

Proverbs 11:1-9 brings it all together by saying this:

'1 The Lord detests dishonest scales,
but accurate weights find favour with him.

2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
but with humility comes wisdom.

3 The integrity of the upright guides them,
but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.

4 Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath,
but righteousness delivers from death.

5 The righteousness of the blameless makes their paths straight,
but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness.

6 The righteousness of the upright delivers them,
but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires.

7 Hopes placed in mortals die with them;
all the promise of their power comes to nothing.

8 The righteous person is rescued from trouble,
and it falls on the wicked instead.

9 With their mouths the godless destroy their neighbours,
but through knowledge the righteous escape.'

Prayer: God, make my tongue holy. I long to position my heart more fully, kneeling before you. Let me lay aside the load and bearing of the day to seek what you have to say about the relationships, power, and people around me. I lay it down to better serve you.

Action: Sit for a minute, staring out the window as you ponder today’s reflection. Where does your mind drift to? What mistakes or objections?