Those of us who are familiar with the bible know that one of the attitudes the Lord requires of us is humility. The bible is filled with passages reminding us to be humble because the Lord gives grace to such people (James 4:6). Plus, humility is our rightful position as we are not gods and can never take his place nor should we ever attempt to do such a disgraceful thing. However, if you are like me, you need a bit more examples of what it means to be humble and how to practically incorporate this in your day-to-day habits. Where and how should one be humble? Is there a manual for humility or is it just the path the Lord will put some of us through in the course of our lives? There have been many books written on the subject and I am not trying to give you another “how-to” answer but as I read the book of Daniel, there are certain traits that I have noticed that made him humbled before the Lord and I would like to share those with you in this post in an attempt to give you a practical example of what it means to be humble. As I have stated before, Daniel is a person that intrigues me, challenges me, and quite frankly impresses me. I wish there was a way to go back in time to see how he lived his life practically. Unfortunately, I do not have that privilege, but I have the bible which gives me what I need. There are two instances of humility that Daniel displayed in the chapters nine and ten that I would like to highlight. These are not exhaustive, but these are the ones I want to focus on.
The first instance is in chapter nine where Daniel prays to God. In this chapter, Daniel understood from the Scriptures that in the first year of king Darius, the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years according to the prophecy by Jeremiah (Daniel 9:2). For Daniel to come to this revelation it means first that he was constantly applying himself to wisdom by being versed in the Scriptures and second, he was living in expectation of the fulfilment of God’s promises coming to pass. You see, unlike many of his contemporaries, Daniel, though highly affluent and prominent, never regarded the riches he had as more important than seeing the glory of Jerusalem restored. Daniel did not live in Babylon like someone who was going to plant root and establish there forever. No, his eyes were always turned towards Jerusalem. You see that even as he prays. So, it is not surprising that Daniel was always anticipating the return of Judah to its own land. When the bible talks about setting our eyes on Jesus or on things above, I think that is exactly what it means. We must always live conscious of the fact that we are not of this world, and we are not our own, therefore Jesus must be part of whatever situation we are going through because heaven is our new home, not this earth. Like Daniel, we should learn to not be content with the pleasures of this world, but we should live in expectation of the pleasures we will get in heaven. The humble attitude that Daniel displays here is coming to God in prayer and fasting. As soon as Daniel discovers that the desolation of Jerusalem is seventy years and that it has arrived, he quickly turns to the Lord in prayer in order to understand what is going on regarding that prophecy. The way Daniel turns to the Lord in prayer is also a bit different than how we would normally do. He “turned to the Lord and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes” (Daniel 9:3, italics mine). This is humility at its best. Daniel added to his prayer and supplication fasting and covering himself in sackcloth and ashes. Unlike Daniel, we are a generation that struggles a lot with humbling ourselves before God through prayer and fasting. As a matter of fact, we struggle with prayer alone, add fasting on top of it and you have killed some of us. May the Lord forgive us. Daniel shows us that there is a way to approach the living God and there is a way that is pleasing to Him as we come before Him and that is through prayer and fasting. That is one way to humble yourself before God. Do you recall the story of Jonah when he preached the judgement word to the Ninevites and those people upon hearing the word repented? They humbled themselves before the Lord, how exactly? Through prayer and fasting with sackcloth and ashes. Chapter three of Jonah states: “The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.” (Jonah 3:5). Prayer and fasting are a proven way to humble one’s self before the Lord. There are many other passages in the scriptures that attest to this: Psalm 35:13 says “But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting…” (italics mine). I believe you get the point. Part of humility is to come before the Lord with prayer and fasting. Daniel knew that and he made sure to humble himself before his Maker to get understanding. And as we know in the following verses and chapters, Daniel received understanding of the Jeremiah’s prophecy. Instead of accusing God of not fulfilling His word, Daniel knew God was not the problem but that his lack of understanding was. So, he turned to God for answers and indeed, he was given clarity into his understanding of the prophecy of Jeremiah and the times to come. Daniel was shown greater things, things that were to come in the future. Some of the visions that were shown Daniel were fulfilled in Jesus, but others are even yet to come. I believe Daniel teaches us that we must be quick to ascribe to God what is God’s instead of ascribing to God our failures and finite mentalities. One thing that Daniel knew was that God is good and He is powerful. What He says goes, what He decrees always comes to pass. On these convictions, Daniel turned his face to God in prayer and fasting to understand why the accomplishment of the prophecy was not happening according to what he understood.
The second instance I would like to highlight is taken from Daniel ten where Daniel received understanding of a vision he had been given. Prior to receiving this understanding, Daniel had been in mourning for three weeks, eating no choice foods, no meat, drinking no wine and using no lotion on his body (Daniel 10:2). I am convinced that if Daniel were a contemporary, we would say that “he is showing off”, that “he is doing too much” when in fact he is having the attitude we should all have when we come before the Lord Most High. Coincidentally, Daniel’s attitude reminded me of Jesus’ instructions to his disciples on how to fast and he said to “anoint your head and wash your face” (Matthew 6:17). This sounds contrary to what Daniel did but Jesus’ point was that fasting is to God, it is for God to see and not men. Unfortunately, fasting had become something Pharisees did to get recognize by men and Jesus wanted to draw the focus back to God. In Daniel’s case, we know that his heart was right with God and that he was focused on God as he fasted and prayed. This had nothing to do with anyone. As a matter of fact, Daniel humbled himself before God in such a manner to receive understanding of a vision he had had prior so this could not have been directed by the flesh. Anyway, what I like with Daniel’s lifestyle is that he was quick to forsake the here and now for later. He also showed us that we can reign in our body, that food does not have power over us and that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). Another observation from Daniel’s humility is that he always got an answer from the Lord. This shows us that, coming to God with humility always leads to positive results. I have not seen a case where people have humbled themselves before God and have not received their answer. Often times we want God to speak to us but here is a clear way to hear God speak, just humble yourself to him through prayer and fasting and you will hear Him. God’s instructions can be so simple and straightforward at times that we miss them.
Finally, we need to remember and have it ingrained in us that God’s ways are not our ways, that He is high above and we are down here below (Isaiah 55:8). We cannot equate ourselves with Him, nor can we think we are on a similar scale because we are simply not. He is the creator and we are the creatures. Therefore, let us cultivate an attitude of humility. Yes, aside from coming before the Lord with a recognition that we are not all that great, that we are servant, a practical way to show that you are a servant is by also fasting because when you fast, you show that you are not dependent on food but rather on God. We need to shed ourselves of many of the things we consume. Our flesh seems to be controlling us more than it should, but we are spirit people. We do not live according to the flesh anymore because Christ took away the power of the flesh on us. We are free to live righteousness and so we must strive to put the fruits of the spirit in our forefront. One fruit of the spirit that I like very much is ‘self-control’ because it can be applied to many aspects of our day-to-day life; from interactions with peers, to our eating habits. We need to show self-control in our lives. I hope you were able to see what it means to humble yourself before God specifically through prayer and fasting. Again, this is not the only way to humble yourself, but it is a prominent one. I pray the Lord stirs you to start a habit of prayer and fasting not just to fix your issues but mainly to seek Him and as He has promised: “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 29:13-14). It is a privilege to be humbling ourselves before the Most High God, to be forsaking delicacies of life because we seek Him as our true pleasure, it is a privilege. The Great I AM has made it possible to find Him as we die to ourselves. I pray you will count it all joy to humble yourself before the Lord. It is our rightful place and portion. Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 