God blesses the humble so how do I become humble

I've been studying "waiting on the Lord," which led to my usual rabbit trail towards how to be humble (not pretend to be humble, because I am a pretty confident buoyant person so I want to know the difference) which led to meekness.

A.T. Pierson commented that meekness is a true preference for God's will. Truly desiring to know what does God want in this situation, and truly waiting on Him to discover it - if it is not obvious knowing God as you do - and then having zero struggle to do that instead of what I want to do and would gratify my limited understanding of all the facts.

Dallas Willard said, God will give us humility (Oh thank God, He can give it to me versus me struggling for it) IF - here it comes - we trust Him and wait for Him to act on our behalf, and IF we stop pretending to be what we claim to be and know we are not, and as a result presume some favorable position is ours and push for it or try to override the will of others...

Do you know what was humbling (humility-giving) to me? God speaking to us, or giving us supernatural experiences, does not prove we are right, righteous or make us important. It doesn't even guarantee we heard Him right. "God's purpose is not to merely support us, or make us look or feel secure in our roles, or confirm we are right." Dallas Willard.

We already are important - to Him. Stop trying to be important (preaching to myself) and simply sit in awe that you are important as is. Is God important to you - not what He gives us or does for us, is He important to you as is? Are you in awe and have a little bit of respectful downright sense of fear that the maker of heaven and earth has a purpose for you and it might or might not result in other people thinking you are important?

If so, simply pray, "Lord, what is important to you today, and please give me the humility to desire that above and beyond anything I would have thought is a better use of my time, in the name of Jesus my Savior, amen." 

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Get Real

Welcome back to A Good Bible Study!

Let's get right into prayer and into the Word!

Lord, we hear the term "Get real" all the time. Help me to be a "real" Christian. Help me to live what I say I believe. Help me to determine what I do believe and why I believe it, so I don't need to justify who I am to anyone, anymore. I don't need to say it, I can live it! In the name of Your Son, Jesus who gave His life so I might have mine, amen.

What does that mean to "get real?"
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I say it to mean, "Give me a break, don't try to fool me with that," or "Get the blinders off and see what is really happening to you or with this situation," or "stop joking around and be serious," or any number of things.

Mostly I think we say "get real" to either mean to be sincere in our behavior, or in our understanding of a situation, don't you think?

Do you think people in general think most Christians are sincere in our behavior or have a good grasp of their real life situations?
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Sometimes we are insincere by not being who we say we are. Other times we are insincere by not saying how we really are, inside.

Try these simple exercises. You will get more out of this study if you take a few minutes and write down your answers, look up the verses, and pray the prayers, I promise.

What is one thing as a Christian that you say you believe, but you haven't really acted out in daily life?
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Do you believe this thing, or not? Be honest, there is no right answer. ______

If your answer is yes, will you choose to take one action today to act out what you believe? _______

If your answer is no, why not?
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Either way, look in the back of your bible and find three verses that have to do with the subject and look them up. Write them here:
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Have you changed your mind? ___________

Either way, you know yourself better now than you did fifteen minutes ago. Now you are getting real.

When your behavior matches your true convictions, you feel genuine and others respond to you with trust and respect.

Try this with anything you find you are not acting out and see if you can determine if the problem is that you just have not taken action on your belief, or that you really don't believe it. Get to know the real you.

Love, Karen

Photo by M. Bartosch, courtesy of Freedigitalphoto.net