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A Biblical Study of Repentance, Mercy, and God’s Response

Humility is one of the most misunderstood and least talked-about spiritual characteristics, yet Scripture shows us again and again that it is humility, not sacrifice, that truly moves the heart of God.

In this teaching, I want to walk through 1 Kings 21 and the story of King Ahab, a man known for wickedness, pride, and rebellion, yet also the unlikely example God uses to show us how powerful true humility really is.

This passage reveals the difference between outward behavior that looks humble and a heart that is genuinely repentant, and why God responds when humility is real.

The Story of Ahab and Naboth’s Vineyard (1 Kings 21)

In 1 Kings 21, King Ahab desires Naboth’s vineyard, which sits next to his palace. When Naboth refuses to sell it because it is his family inheritance under God’s law, Ahab responds not with respect or restraint, but with childish pride.

He throws himself on his bed, refuses to eat, and sulks.

This moment exposes the heart of pride. Ahab wants what he wants, and when he does not get it, he reacts like a child rather than a king accountable to God.

His wife Jezebel then takes matters into her own hands, arranging false witnesses and orchestrating Naboth’s murder so Ahab can seize the land. In doing so, multiple commandments are broken, including coveting, lying, murder, and idolatry.

This is not just a story of injustice. It is a picture of what pride produces when left unchecked.

Pride Versus Humility: How God Sees the Difference

One of the most important contrasts in this chapter is the difference between pouting and repentance.

Earlier, Ahab refuses to eat because he is upset. Later, after Elijah confronts him with the word of the Lord and the consequences of his sin, Ahab fasts intentionally before God.

The actions look similar on the surface, but the heart posture is completely different.

• Pouting is self-centered.
• Repentance is God-centered.
• Pride demands its own way.
• Humility submits to God’s authority.

God sees the difference every time.

When God Confronts Sin, Humility Changes the Outcome

After Elijah delivers God’s judgment, something unexpected happens.

Ahab tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, fasts, and mourns before the Lord. For the first time in this story, we see a king who recognizes the weight of his sin and the authority of God’s word.

And God responds.

Scripture tells us that the Lord says to Elijah:

“See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me.”

Because of this humility, God delays judgment. The consequences do not disappear, but mercy is shown.

This moment teaches us a critical truth: humility does not erase accountability, but it does move God toward mercy.

Why God Responds to Humility More Than Sacrifice

Throughout Scripture, God makes it clear that outward religious acts do not impress Him if the heart is not right.

Psalm 51:17 says that God does not despise a broken and contrite heart. Micah 6:8 reminds us that God requires us to walk humbly with Him. James 4:10 promises that if we humble ourselves before the Lord, He will lift us up.

Sacrifice can be chosen on our terms. Obedience and humility require surrender.

True humility acknowledges dependence on God, recognizes personal fault without excuses, and turns away from sin rather than just feeling sorry for it.

What It Means to Truly Humble Yourself Before God

Biblical humility is not weakness. It is submission.

The original language gives us a picture of being brought low, bowing before authority, or laying oneself flat before God. It is the posture of recognizing that God is King and we are not.

Humility includes:

• Accepting God’s correction
• Turning away from wrongdoing
• Obeying even when it costs us
• Letting go of pride, comparison, and self-justification

This is why Scripture consistently connects humility with wisdom. Pride blinds us. Humility allows us to see clearly.

Jesus as the Ultimate Example of Humility

Jesus Himself is described as gentle and lowly in heart. He entered the world as a dependent child, lived in obedience to the Father, washed the feet of His disciples, and humbled Himself even unto death on a cross.

Philippians 2 shows us that Jesus did not cling to status or power. He chose obedience and servitude.

If humility moved the heart of God in the life of Ahab, how much more does it matter that we follow the example of Christ?

How Humility Applies to Our Lives Today

Humbling ourselves before God may not always mean public repentance. Sometimes it looks like:

• Ending an unequally yoked relationship
• Apologizing and making things right
• Forgiving someone who wronged us
• Letting go of personal ambition
• Accepting responsibility instead of deflecting blame

Humility is choosing God’s way over our own, even when pride resists.

The Only Way Forward Is to Get Low

If God were to confront us today, how would we respond?

Would we defend ourselves, justify our actions, or blame others? Or would we humble ourselves before Him?

Scripture is clear. The only way forward is humility. Not forced humility, but a willing, surrendered posture that says, “Lord, You are right, and I trust You.”

When we humble ourselves, God lifts us up. When we resist, pride eventually leads to a fall.

Walking Forward in Humility

Humility is not a one-time moment. It is a posture we must choose daily.

As we walk forward, humility allows us to live under God’s protection, provision, and blessing. It keeps our hearts soft, our minds teachable, and our lives aligned with His will.

God is merciful. He is patient. And He is always willing to respond when we humble ourselves before Him.

Where To Dive In

00:00 The Rewards of Humility
03:00 The Story of Ahab and Naboth
11:53 God’s Response to Humility
20:51 The Power of Humility in Our Lives
36:01 Practical Applications of Humility
51:57 The Call to Humble Ourselves

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

Jaime Luce (00:08.782)
Welcome to the Jaime Luce podcast. It is my pleasure to spend time with you in the word of God. I know I say that all the time, but that is the truth. I am debating on what to call this today. And I think I’ve sort of settled on the rewards of humility. And this is a subject nobody likes to talk about. Nobody likes to talk about having to be humble.

And the only ones who seem to want to talk about being humble are the ones who are, who think they’re humble, which means they probably aren’t humble. It’s one of those tricky, tricky characteristics. And it can be surprising to see true humility. And so today, you know, being that there’s a new year upon us. I thought, you know, I could try to do.

something and find something that talks about new beginnings and all of that. But honestly, I felt to go back to where we were in first Kings. And when I saw, you know, this is what’s so fantastic about the Old Testament. Why I love the Old Testament so much is because it paints this really awesome picture. If you’re somebody who enjoys reading at all and hearing

a good story per se. These are not stories, these actually happened, but we kind of relate to them like a story and they can conjure up all their own images and each of us probably pictures things a little bit differently. So today I wanted to jump in and read to you from First Kings chapter 21.

And I want you to hear the story that’s being told. And what we’re going to focus in on where the teaching will go is all about what humility really is and what it produces and how God reacts to it. Because I guarantee you, you will need this. At some point in your life, you will need this. Remember as kids, if

Jaime Luce (02:33.082)
If you had siblings or maybe if you have children now and you see them interact with one another and you either had this told to you or you’ve told this to your children. I watch this all the time right now with my granddaughters, but you hear mom say, know, one child will do something to the other child and it’s either not provoked or even if it is, it’s responded to in a

in a much stronger sense than it should be or something’s unfair. Someone takes something from somebody or something to that effect. And you hear mom say, you tell her you’re sorry or you tell him you’re sorry. And you are forced as a child to humble yourself and say you’re sorry. And so many times as kids, we said it because we knew we’d get in trouble if we didn’t, but we didn’t really mean it.

And the Lord knows the difference. And today in this story, we’re going to read about behavior that looked humble, but wasn’t. And then when it truly was, God saw it and God responded. And it was to a very unlikely person. We’re talking about King Ahab today. So go with me in your Bibles to 1 Kings 21.

Okay, so if you’ve got your Bibles, I’ll start in verse one. And if you want, as long as you’re not driving, just kind of allow yourself to enter into the story like someone’s telling you a story and let the pictures come up. Let yourself see this actually happening. And in it you’ll…

It’ll be much richer for you if you do. You’ll get so much more out of it if you do. And it came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel next to the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. So Ahab spoke to Naboth saying, give me your vineyard that I may have it for a vegetable garden.

Jaime Luce (04:55.65)
because it is near me, next to my house, and for it I will give you a vineyard better than it. Or if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money. But Naboth said to Ahab, the Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you. So Ahab went into his house sullen.

and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him. For he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would not eat. Now, let me just point this out right here. If you can picture this at all, it truly is this man throwing a fit like a child.

He wanted something. It’s like wanting a toy and being told, no, you can’t have it. And he literally goes and throws himself on his bed and won’t eat. And he’s pouting. He’s sullen. He’s upset about it. Okay. But Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said to him, why is your spirit so sullen that you eat no food? He said to her, because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite.

and said to him, give me your vineyard for money or else if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give you my vineyard. Then Jezebel his wife said to him, you now exercise authority over Israel. Arise, eat food and let your heart be cheerful. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite. And she wrote letters in Ahab’s name

sealed them with his seal and sent the letters to the elders of the nobles who were dwelling in the city with Naboth. She wrote in the letters saying, proclaim a fast and seat Naboth with high honor among the people and seat two men scoundrels before him to bear witness against him saying, you have blasphemed God.

Jaime Luce (07:18.926)
and the king, then take him out and stone him that he may die. So the men of the city, the elders and the nobles who were inhabitants of his city did as Jezebel had sent to them as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them. They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth with high honor among the people and two men scoundrels.

came in and sat before him. And the scoundrels witnessed against him, against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth has blasphemed God and the king. Then they took him outside the city and stoned him with stones so that he died. Now, just so you know, in Israelite history, two things are important to note that have just taken place. First of all, the reason Naboth told him no,

was because it was against the law that Moses had set forth that when you had land, your family had land, you were never to sell that land out of your inheritance to somebody else. That land of inheritance was perpetual and it was to be passed down in your family. And it would be against God’s laws to do so. So Naboth was doing the righteous thing and you see King Ahab and Jezebel completely

disregarding and having no value over God’s laws and God’s ways. Second, we can see that she asked for two scoundrels. And the reason she did this was because you had to have at least two or three witnesses if you were to bring an accusation against someone in order for that to be punishable. You couldn’t just have someone say, I saw so-and-so do something and try to get them in trouble. And you had to have two people who were witnesses to see. So she specifically

in order to get around that law had two scoundrels present in order to take Naboth out, okay? So let’s go to verse 17. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who lives in Samaria. There he is in the vineyard of Naboth.

Jaime Luce (09:42.338)
where he has gone down to take possession of it. You shall speak to him saying, thus says the Lord, have you murdered and also taken possession? And you shall speak to him saying, thus says the Lord, in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours.

So Ahab said to Elijah, have you found me, my enemy? And he answered, I have found you because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat.

and like the house of Baishah the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked my anger and made Israel sin. And concerning Jezebel, the Lord also spoke saying, the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Ahab and dies in the city and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field. But there was no one

like Ahab, who had sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him.

And he behaved very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. So it was when Ahab heard those words that he tore his clothes and he put sackcloth on his body and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went around

Jaime Luce (11:53.672)
morning. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, See how Ahab has humbled himself before me. Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son, I will bring the calamity on his house. A couple things here.

before we dive in that I wanna point out. Here we have seen a blatant disregard for God’s laws in the fact that he wanted to take this land that he knew was not his to take. But we see several of God’s commands broken just out of the 10 commandments. He served idols and you’re not supposed to serve any other God but God. They lied with false witness. He envied and coveted.

what his neighbor had, he murdered, they lied about it. This whole thing is a blatant show of the heart of what’s going on, why God said he was so abominable. There was no one like Ahab who sold himself, who sold himself. You know, we hear the term, you’ve seen it in movies, they sold their soul to the devil. This is no joke. He sold himself.

to do evil. And what’s interesting is when Elijah comes to him, Elijah was always running from Ahab and Jezebel because of their threats to kill him. But here, God sends him directly to him. So he goes, which this is the second time he’d send him to him, or third time actually. But he goes and he confronts him and Ahab considers him an enemy because he brings the word of God.

Have you found me, my enemy? He called him that before. In previous chapters, we read that he has called him that before. And Elijah accepts it and says, yes, he recognizes how much of an enemy of God this man is behaving like. And yet the scripture tells us that the reason he is so bad is because of his wife, Jezebel. If that doesn’t tell us,

Jaime Luce (14:21.048)
how important it is who we are connected to. It is no joke when scripture says that we are not to be unequally yoked because she stirred him up. Have you ever met somebody who just stirs up trouble? They like to instigate problems or they run to do evil. Proverbs is full of when King Solomon was trying to teach his sons saying,

do not follow after these kind of people who run to do evil. They look for opportunities to do evil. This was Jezebel. And her whole attitude, even the way she dealt with him, she dealt with him more like a mother. You see the issues, the psychological issues going on in here, telling him, quit acting like that. You are the one in charge. I’ll get it for you. I’ll take care of this myself.

And I mean, this is when he’s acting like a child throwing a fit and she goes in and does an abominable act on his behalf in his name with his signet, writes the letters, uses his signet ring as if. So these people who are party to this, the elders, the nobles who are party to this simply think that the King has written them a letter and they’re supposed to do this by order of the King, not knowing Jezebel is the one doing this. This is awful. And God calls.

Ahab out through Elijah saying you have caused Israel to sin. These things you’re doing, you are roping in people who aren’t a part of this. You’re taking my people and bringing shame on their name. How many times have we felt as the church that when we see someone who has risen to a very high level in the church and then they fall tremendously because of great sin.

And to our hearts, we are grieved because we know this brings a reproach on the bride of Christ. When the bride wasn’t the one doing it. Now there might be people out there doing it, but as a whole, all it takes is the head getting shamed in such a way that it brings shame on all of us. And this is the reproach that has come against all of Israel because of what this King has done.

Jaime Luce (16:47.65)
And because of the alliance he has, the marriage that he has entered into. So I wanted to focus in now, let’s really focus in because this is something I think that will help all of us. We have all, we all have need of humility. We all don’t even, we don’t realize we do this. We can be in situations and we get so puffed up in our attitudes and we just think we’re right. And I’m talking about me too.

We can just get judgmental. We can get arrogant. We can get boastful. We can get ideas in our head and we just think we’re right. instead, because what happens is if I’m not in an attitude of humility, then I am not in an attitude of servitude. There’s a difference. I can’t truly serve.

without the characteristic of humility. Because if I’m doing acts without humility, then they are self-serving. Then my heart isn’t right. Then I’ve entered into an attitude that was akin to the Pharisees, that I whitewash the outside, but the inside is full of dead men’s bones. I am a whitewash coffin. So I have to be so careful to

say, Holy Spirit, have I allowed you to come in and examine my own heart, my own thoughts, my own attitudes, my way of going about things? Do I participate in activities like Ahab where I just want what I want? And so I’m going to do and justify my actions in order to gain what I want. And if I don’t get what I want from God, if God is not my genie in the bottle and he doesn’t give me what I want, when I want, do I throw fits?

Do I ignore him? Do I act like a child? Do I go around pouting? Or am I a humble person in spirit and saying, oh Lord, you know what’s best for me. I trust you. We’ve defined where we are in that.

Jaime Luce (19:09.71)
excuse me, in that place, in that happening. And so I wanted to point out a few things here. We can see, let’s go back and read 27 to 29.

So it was when Ahab heard those words, when he heard what was going to happen to not just his own life, to his posterity, to his children and his children’s children, to anybody who was connected to Ahab. When he heard those words, he tore his clothes, he put sackcloth on his body and he fasted. This time he is not throwing a fit. We can see the difference between throwing himself on his bed and pouting.

versus tearing his clothes and putting on sackcloth and entering into a fast. He’s not saying, I don’t want to eat. Now he’s saying, I am not eating on purpose. There’s a reason for this not eating. I am fasting before the Lord because the only reason you fasted was unto the Lord. You fasted, he fasted and he laid in sackcloth and he mourned. He went about mourning. That’s a different process.

That is a humble heart. That is recognizing, I have really messed this up. I’ve really messed this up. And then in verse 28 and 29, and the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, see how Ahab has humbled himself before me, because he has humbled himself before me. I will not bring the calamity in his days, in the days of his son.

I will bring the calamity on his house. So God is literally saying, I’m going to show some mercy. Ahab doesn’t want to see all that I’m going to bring against him. He, because he has humbled himself, it’s, it’s almost as if it’s a reward. That’s why I called this the rewards of humility. God is moved when we have a humble spirit.

Jaime Luce (21:18.796)
The scripture verse, Psalm 51, 17 says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. God, you will not despise. Another way to say that is God will not despise a broken and contrite heart or spirit.

I’ve meditated on that scripture many times over the years. And that word, that to be humble and contrite means and describes a person who is genuinely sorry for their sins and who recognizes their need for God and is willing to obey him, which contrasts pride.

with religious acts. See how it’s actual servitude versus what’s in it for me? It signifies a soft, repentant spirit that God finds precious, showing true inner brokenness rather than external sacrifice. That’s why the scripture says it is better to obey the sacrifice because obedience is humbling. Sacrifice you can do on your terms.

You can decide what to sacrifice, when to sacrifice and how to sacrifice, but that’s not you necessarily humbling yourself to do so. I looked up some stuff on AI just to see what it would have to say about this. And it says humility is acknowledging one’s complete dependence on God and recognizing personal faults. So what God was seeing in Ahab here is saying,

I recognize that my life actually is in your hands and I actually believe the words that you have said because I am now mourning and remorseful and I am repentant and all of these things that are hitting me because I believe you, you’re actually going to do this. This was your word. So there’s a belief in God and understanding in who he is and a humbling of himself. Contrition,

Jaime Luce (23:45.526)
Or repentance means deep sorrow for sin and it offers no excuses and it is a truly turning away from wrongdoing. Then the opposite then would be obedience, a willingness to listen to and follow God’s word, trembling at it with reverence. Then a softness comes to the heart that isn’t hardened, but is pliable and receptive to God’s molding. I thought that was so good.

Isaiah 66 to also says God looks for the one who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word. Isn’t that good that you can see such a difference here in this one chapter, we see the extreme opposites, someone who is completely selfish, someone who has no, um,

no regard at all for God’s word. And then turning to such a point that he believes God’s word humbles himself and becomes contrite. And because of this, God is showing us a characteristic of himself that we can cling to when we need it. If you’ve ever needed to repent for something, and we all do, we all have, we can count

on this quality of God, that God continually shows long suffering and mercy. If you go back and read from the time Ahab is recorded in scripture, God was constantly speaking through the prophets, trying to show himself merciful to Ahab and that he would be his helper if he would just do it God’s way. If he would just humble himself.

And you see God constantly trying to extend grace to King Ahab. And he would, I mean, he literally would going in and helping him defeat enemies. God was so merciful, always wanting to show mercy to the, Israel and the Kings of Israel. Second, God knew that Ahab was also a weak man who was prodded to evil continually.

Jaime Luce (26:14.498)
because of his wife Jezebel. God recognized what was going on. It wasn’t just that Ahab was weak. It was also that his wife was wicked and she was constantly prodding him. Third, Ahab humbled himself, which is paramount. People rarely truly humble themselves. Hi, my name is Jaime Luce.

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but you don’t need money. I’m telling you the answer is you need God. And that’s exactly what we want to teach you through this book. We’ll give you practical ways to know what to do and how to do it so that you get answers now. You can find my book on Amazon. You can also go to jamylouc.com. can also find this book at youdon’tneedmoneyyoujustneedgod.com. This book is available today. Have you ever had to

publicly apologize for anything? Or had to go to someone that you didn’t care for and have to ask for forgiveness? Have you ever had to make something right that was wrong because of something that you did or said? The word humble here means to submit oneself

to somebody. And Ahab believed and accepted the word of the Lord and his judgments against him. And he made the right decision in those critical moments to humble himself. I did a word study in both the Hebrew and the Greek, which gives a very deep, rich picture of this.

Jaime Luce (28:35.032)
The first instance of his use and its etymology is to be low or to get flat, which gives the picture to prostrate oneself or to get very low. And we can see this in the old pictures. Well, sadly, we see this operating greatly right now in the Islamic community, but

When we talk about prayer, we’ll say, got on my knees. What does that mean? That picture is, I am humbling myself. I am bowing before God. He is our King. You can see all through history that people would come in and even if it’s for a female, if we say curtsy or we do this with royalty now, it means I am humbling myself before your authority and I am

bowing myself before you as in submission to you. In the word low is lowly, insignificant, weak, poor, or of trivial power or significance, like of a city or of a country, meaning one understands it’s weaker than another by power, whether that be for a state or a statesman.

It’s a position that a man occupies of a man’s power and influence. We’re talking about lowly, a man’s power and influence of prison, being confined, of the judge’s seat, knowing that there is a judge that I have to answer to. One of my favorites was this one of stars near the horizon. It is so poetic, so beautiful because

A star, the brightness of a star can only be seen in the darkest of skies. But the closer that star is to the sun, to the horizon, you can’t see it. It’s humbled because of the sun. It’s so humbled, you’re insignificant, you can’t be seen. Your light doesn’t even compare. It is of the couched lance.

Jaime Luce (30:59.222)
I really liked this, which is distinct from a raised lance. Now a lance is, you ever been, if you live in Southern California, we go to a place every now and again for family fun outings and things called medieval times. And they have actual horses and knights who ride the horses and they have jousting contest to see who will win.

And in those contents, joust, you have to have a lance, which is your long stick that’s got the pointed air thing on the end, which could kill you. You have to have a shield trying to block the stabbing joust that’s coming near you. So the difference in being humble and lowly is the difference between someone who simply holds and has a lance, which it’s seated, it’s in a seated position. It’s not being ready for use.

versus one that is raised and is ready to strike power. With respect to the spiritual and moral state of a man, it means lowly or servile. That word servile means having or showing an excessive willingness to serve or please others. That’s servitude.

That’s true lowly, lowliness in spirit and a contrite heart. is submission. Can you see what Ahab was doing and how God saw it and then responded?

Let’s look at other references to humility. Proverbs 11 to, which we’re all familiar with this verse, but depending on what version you read it in, it reads a little differently. When pride comes, then comes disgrace. You’ve heard pride comes before fall. When pride comes, then comes disgrace. But with the humble is wisdom. Wisdom.

Jaime Luce (33:14.186)
Showing humility to the one who is truly in authority Having a right heart and doing it God’s way in servitude Serving one another Didn’t Jesus say they would know you’re my disciples by your love one for the other That’s because you out do one another in service to one another. That’s humility and In that is wisdom. Why is it wisdom?

because it moves God, it changes outcomes. Humility is powerful. It’s a powerful, I hesitate to use the word tool because we don’t use it to gain, we serve. It holds within it such power that you have to be careful how you use it. Micah 6 verse 8 says, he has shown you, man, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Jaime Luce (34:27.948)
That verse alone counters every action that Ahab and Jezebel took the party to in killing Naboth. What God wants is for you to do justly what they did was so unjust, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. They showed Naboth no mercy. killed him and to walk humbly before your God. They did that with arrogance and power.

She did that saying, take your place, you’re the one who rules.

And then most famously, I’m sure you’ve heard second Chronicles seven 14, if my people who are called by my name, so my people who are called by my name will humble themselves themselves, humble themselves, not be humbled, humble themselves. There’s a difference when God humbles you versus you humbled yourself. God literally said of, of Ahab that he humbled himself.

God simply spoke the word. He hadn’t stripped him yet of any power. He hadn’t killed anybody yet. He hadn’t done anything yet. He hadn’t humbled him yet. He’d spoken his word and Ahab humbled himself. We all have that mercy of God, a chance to respond to God. And in that moment that we decide how we’re going to response, to give a response, it’s in that moment that we show whether we have wisdom or not.

And it’s in that moment that we show whether we will humble ourselves or stay in arrogance and be forced to be humbled. So if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, which is what we saw.

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that this meaning of this word literally means real repentance is I am turning away from the wrongdoing. Then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. If you need this today, do you need your land healed? Do you need forgiveness? This is the way.

Humbling ourselves before God is the way. It’s a way forward. A haughty spirit will never gain you what you really need and desire. It will never bring good to your life. Walking humbly before God is what moves God.

This is exactly what we see from God with Ahab. This is the beauty of God and His character, who He is and how He is merciful and forgiving with us. This is who our God is. If you look at James 4.10, it says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.

Do you need lifting today? If you’re in a bad spot, I always quote a line from a movie. And I don’t mean to bring humor in the serious moment of this scripture, but there’s a movie and they said many times, I’m in a tight spot. I’m in a tight spot. And when we are, because we find ourselves there, we really do. We can find ourselves in a tough spot every day.

I really with dealing with people and life and circumstance and things are hard. People are dealing with difficult stuff, but the best way to move forward, the best heart posture to take is to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. He will lift you up. Philippians two verse three says, let nothing be done.

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through selfish ambition or conceit, which was where Ahab started. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. If Ahab would have esteemed Naboth and his family’s inheritance as better than himself, he would never

have tried to do what he did. He would never have allowed to happen what happened. He would never have approached, even though Jezebel is the one who set out for the killing, when she goes and tells Naboth, go take the land, he’s dead, go for it, he immediately jumps off of his bed and runs down to that land to take it. So he was akin to it, he was party to it.

He wasn’t against it. He didn’t chide her and say, how did he die? He didn’t come against Jezebel for what she did. He was hand in hand with her in this mischief.

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Esteem others better than yourself Luke 14 11. I hope you’re writing all these downs. There’s so many good ones for whoever exalts himself Will be humbled If you’re if you’re quick to blow your own horn boy at some point that pride’s gonna bite you and you’re gonna be humbled and He who humbles himself Will be exalted

The word only confirms itself. We see Jesus taking on this character from his birth. Over and over again, he shows himself as humble and lowly. In fact, the scripture describes him as lowly. Matthew 11, 29, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. Or Matthew 21, five tells us, behold,

Your King is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the full of a donkey. It’s even the weak of not even a full grown donkey. His birth, which we’ve just celebrated, is his coming as a baby, completely dependent, completely weak.

completely stripped of all glory, being born in a barn and laid in a trough in a manger. He came lowly, the lamb to be sacrificed. He considered us better than himself in human form that he would die in our place, taking on our sin and our shame.

that we might gain and be clothed in his righteousness. That’s servitude. That’s humility. That’s love.

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He humbled himself, we see in John 13 verses four and five. He rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. He humbled himself in

every action and word as a servant in John 5 19. It says, then Jesus answered and said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do. For whatever he does, the son also does in like manner. Then John 8 28, when you lift up

the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father taught me, I speak these things.” Jesus humbled Himself, the innocent and perfect, unto death on a cross to save us, the guilty, from our sins.

Philippians 2 8 says and being found in human form He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross Can you see the depth and power of humility look what it purchased us? Look how God looked on his humility and what that game brought us

So how do we humble ourselves? By becoming obedient, even if it’s unto death. How many are we seeing right now in other countries who are being martyred for the faith, who have humbled themselves unto death? We are so spoiled here in America that we do not even come close to understanding that concept.

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There are those who have experienced it, Charlie Kirk experienced it. There are those who have, who go out knowing daily that their lives are in danger. But the majority of us sit comfortably deciding if we’ll go to church or not. I’m kind of tired today. I think I’ll wait till next week. I’ll call out sick even though I was supposed to serve in the kids church.

I just, don’t feel like dealing with kids today. We so easily.

remain in a position of selfishness and don’t humble ourselves to true servitude and sacrifice. We will choose ourselves. We think more highly of ourselves than we do others.

I know that there are some of you out there, you’re true servants. really do. You give your time, your energy, your resources. You humble yourself all the time.

But I would venture to say that even those who are really good at serving, we might have attitudes in our heart. We might even begin to get bitter about our serving, which we have to be so careful. We can think nobody else is serving. We can start to get into self-pity. We can start to think that we’re better than other people and get into self-righteousness because we serve and others don’t.

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or we give more time than others do, we have got to remain in a place of searching our hearts and humbling ourselves before God, because everything we do in service should be to the King. Doing like Jesus did, I see my Father doing this, therefore I do it. And when we begin to question others, we have to remember that Jesus corrected the…

Peter, he corrected Peter when Peter said, well, what about John? When Jesus was telling them about where their ends were going to be, that Peter’s gonna have to be martyred in a really terrible death. But John’s not, it doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen the same way for John. Now John was, they tried to boil him alive and he was, you know, put on the Isle of Patmos, but he wasn’t, he didn’t die. He actually lived and he didn’t die. So.

But when Peter, you know, kind of ruffled his feathers when he realized how he was going to die versus how John was going to die. And Jesus said to him, what is that to you? We’re not supposed to be concerned with what God calls other people to do. We don’t know what they’re dealing with. We don’t know the conditions of their heart. We don’t know what things they can mentally withstand and can’t. We don’t know the intricacies of the things they’re in.

that they’re, this is so, we have to be so careful because we judge people based off of our life and our circumstance. We do not know. That’s why it is wisdom to understand. You don’t know what it’s like until you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. It’s wrong for you to judge them. You don’t know what it’s like being them in that circumstance. You may have even walked a similar circumstance.

but you’re different people. It’s different. Don’t get caught up in that. Don’t be in a comparison game with other people. Let humility do a work on you and only you. You let them, let the Lord deal with them. Humility says, I am not concerned with you. I am concerned with my heart. I humble myself before God. I am to put myself

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in a place of humility. So we can all benefit from regular checks on where is our heart, where’s our head, where are our thoughts, where are we?

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Not all of us will be called to a place of death, but it might not be a physical death. It might be the death of a wrong relationship. You could be someone who’s like an Ahab. You might have a weaker personality and you have paired yourself with someone who stirs up trouble. You have paired yourself with someone who is you are unequally yoked. And that’s not just a marriage. That’s in business relationships. That’s with friendships.

Do not be unequally yoked. There might need to be a death of that relationship.

If that’s what the Lord is convicting you about, humble yourself, humble yourself. It may be the death of a personal ambition that is outside of God’s will for your life. That you might be saying no to the call of God and what he wants you to do because there’s something you want to do more. You don’t want God’s will. You don’t want his way. You want your way.

It might be the death of pride and apologizing and asking for forgiveness. Whether that’s publicly or privately, depending on if you, if some, if I humiliate somebody publicly, then I need to humiliate myself publicly. I need to apologize in like manner. If it is something private between friends or brother and sister or however that

in close relationship, then that can be done privately. What? Maybe God is calling you to do something publicly to show a truly contrite heart. I don’t know. It’s possible.

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It may be you accepting responsibility for problems in the workplace that maybe you haven’t been working as hard as others. Maybe you dropped the ball. Maybe something took place and you weren’t owning up to it and there are issues and problems. Humility says, will come in and I accept responsibility and I will fix and correct what I have done wrong.

Maybe you have to forgive somebody. That your pride says, have a right to be angry. But that anger is going to do nothing but eat you. It’s going to destroy you.

Maybe you need to humble yourself and forgive somebody who wronged you. It’s the death of holding onto that.

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if you were to see yourself in this story today.

And the prophet came and knocked on your door today.

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and said to you that the Lord says,

This pride, it’s gotten in the way.

This attitude, this has been a problem and it’s gonna cause severe consequences in your life.

If the Prophet knocked on your door today, what would your response be?

What would your response be?

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I can tell you by the authority of God, because of His word, not my own, but because of His word, that the only way forward, is to get low. Humble yourselves.

I would even go so far as to say that we not only have to get low, we have to stay low.

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Assume the position.

Take the right posture.

Get on your knees.

For it’s from here that his word promises us that he will lift us up.

If you need to be lifted up today, hit your knees. Hit your knees.

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Can I pray for you?

Heavenly Father, we just humble ourselves even right now. Our hearts take the posture of prostrating ourselves before you. And we say, Lord, we need you. We need your words of lifting us up, but we need your words of correction and discipline. We need all that you have to say to us so we know how to move forward.

Lord, I pray for the courage for people today. If they need courage to be able to go and make right a wrong or apologize or to humble themselves, Lord, give them the strength. It’s by your grace. Where sin does abound, grace does much more abound. We can rely on you and you are our helper.

and you will show mercy. You are so faithful to show mercy. Help us Father that we fall on the rock so that the rock doesn’t have to fall on us and crush us. We choose today to humble ourselves before you, to walk in obedience to your word so that we can reap every benefit.

that you are so desperately wanting us to receive. You have good things planned for us that we desire to have and live in and partake of God. So help us today to have ears that hear, to have a heart that will be submissive to your will. Give us minds that comprehend the words that you are saying, to know what to do God and give us strength.

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to go forward and do the will of God. Help us Lord with those around us to think more highly of others than ourselves and to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought. But that we would be an example and a picture of Jesus. That we would be the bride of Christ.

that the world can see. Father, let our little lights be humbled in the horizon of your Son so that you, we bring all glory to you and all honor to you because you are worthy of all honor and glory and praise. We ask all of these things in Jesus’ Amen.

I hope you can take this today and let this guide your new year. Walk forward in humility. Let the Lord show you the way to go this year so that you can walk in His provision, His protection, and His blessing. It was my pleasure to spend time in the Word with you today. If you want to get a hold of any of

any past broadcasts or any of the blogs that I’ve written. if you want to get ahold of my book, you don’t need money. You just need God. can find all of that at my website, which is Jaime Luce.com. That’s J A I E L U C E. And if I, if you’d like to send me either a prayer request, I could be praying with you, or if you have a praise report, I’d love to hear them. can email me at mail at Jaime Luce.com. Thanks so much for spending time in the word this week with me.

We’ll see you next time.