Humility is an ancient virtue that most serious Christ followers desire. At least they should, LOL.

“But humility has nothing to do with meekness or weakness. And neither does it mean being self-effacing or submissive. Humility is an attitude of spiritual modesty that comes from understanding our place in the larger order of things. It entails not taking our desires, successes, or failings too seriously.” https://positivepsychology.com/humility/

Spiritual modesty can also appear as lack of confidence, which is actually doubt in one’s abilities. Let that sink in. Doubt in one’s abilities. It’s a given that for a Christian, every talent we possess comes from Abba.

What’s a given, you ask?

The phrase, “it’s a given” refers to a basic fact that you accept as being true, a basic condition or assumption, as in “It is a given that we are in an age of relentless competition.”

In the past two weeks, I’ve come across several women who have expressed hesitancy in calling themselves by their gifting. They have different talents, an artist, another a writer, another a teacher, yet each displays a hesitancy in taking credit for their production because it may sound prideful. They are struggling with how to properly express Christlike humility when complimented on their work.

I understand and can fully relate to this hesitancy because I was there once, just a few short years ago. My writing career began with blogging in 2012 and at the time, I absolutely could not call myself a writer. Not that year, nor in 2013. But somewhere in 2014, I think it was, I came across a Jeff Goins email advising readers to start saying aloud, “I am a writer.” I printed it out and tacked it to my old school bulletin board in my home office. I followed his advice and began thinking of myself as a writer.

After publishing about fifty articles on my original Healing Writing Room blog and having it hacked, only to lose every bit of my work, I sighed deeply, dug in my heels and began rebuilding another website from scratch. Why do I share this? Because there comes a time as a Christian when you realize that your gifting (art, words, seamstress, hairdresser, etc.) is Holy Spirit flowing through you to the world around you. It’s a given that it is gift. It’s a given that it originates from the Spirit of God.

The Christian struggle with humility is not new for creatives seeking to properly credit God with their inspiration. To anyone seeking guidance in this area, I say, “Did God descend from heaven and paint that painting? Did God write this blog post or click the shutter on your camera resulting in that amazing photograph?”

You are a Kingdom carrier! Therefore, anything you produce is a product of the Holy Spirit within you coming out.

So how about this? The next time you receive a compliment on anything you produce, remember you are a Kingdom carrier releasing God-inspired, God-breathed ideas into the earth for His pleasure, by His design and that IT IS A GIVEN that whatever we create is inspired by Abba Himself.

For Christians, it’s a given that everything we create originates from Him. But God needs our hands, voices, eyes, and distinct personality to release these works. Otherwise He’d have fashioned colorless, unisex clones in our place.

Any reader wondering why I selected the apostle Paul to illustrate this post? Because Paul used his writing ability to record his memories of his time with Jesus. He authored several of the books of the New Testament under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, just as we create under that same inspiration. But Paul is credited with holding the pen, is he not?

I leave you with these closing thoughts: Jesus’s mother, Mary agreed to cooperate with Holy Spirit and yield her body as the vessel to birth the Son of God into this earth. Yet she is called Mary, the Mother of God.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John sat in a chair to record their recollections of the words and actions of Jesus. Their names preceed their words in Bibles worldwide.

Michaelangelo yielded his entire body to paint, sculp, and fashion incredible artistic works. He is known as their creator, not his art alone.

The most appropriate spiritually modest reply to a compliment is, in my humble opinion, “Thank you, to God be the glory!”

Categories: Character Humility Kingdom of God Writing

Tagged as: artistic humility character trait divine inspiration Holy Spirit humility humility as a writer inspiration It's a given meaning modesty spiritual modesty

Kathryne

Christian author and inspirational speaker of truth that makes the darkness tremble. Author of two non-fiction books at https://linktr.ee/TattooedKing