The Ladder of Humility (Part Two)

This is part two of a series on the Ladder of Humility by Saint Benedict. If you have not read the first post, be sure to read it first by clicking below:

Ladder of Humility (Part One)

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Step 2: Doing God’s Will (Not Our Own or Other People’s)

This second step of humility holds three assumptions we need to understand:

1. God has a Will.

This is a basic teaching with radical implications. We live in the midst of a post-modern world. Essentially, there is no such thing as right or wrong. As long as it works for you, it is true for you. What is true for you is not necessarily true for me.

God has a will and your fruitfulness in your Christian life depends on obedience to it.

You do not need to have a mystical experience or visit a psychic (or even a pastor!) to understand God’s will. This subject is far more in-depth then I am going to take the time to explain here, and I highly recommend THIS POST from Pastor Jon Sanders. In essence, we can discover God’s will through seven different mediums:

1. God’s Word
2. Prayer
3. Your spouse
4. Seeking Godly council from others
5. Circumstances (Open/Closed Doors)
6. The viewpoints of others
7. Feeling of peace
   (CREDIT: “How Can I Know God’s Will for My Life” @ www.jonsanders.org – Be sure to go there and read more in-depth how these seven mediums enable you to find God’s will)

2. We can be led astray by our own will.

Solomon, one of the wisest people that has ever lived, wrote profound advice for us in Proverbs 14:12 – “There is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way of death.”

An obsession with our will clouds our vision, ruins our future, and ultimately does not satisfy.

This debased desire has plunged even our spiritual lives into destruction. Our prayer times are filled with wish lists we want God to grant. Essentially, He has become the servant and we have become gods, expecting Him to bow down to our every whim and desire.

Instead of conforming our will to the Father in Heaven, we have attempted to manipulate and command God to adhere to our man-made plans.

3. We can be led astray by the will of others.

By nature, we are slaves languishing under the cold chains of people-pleasing. We have allowed subtle contamination by the desires of other people to dictate how we live our lives.

I promise that you will not give an account before God on how you lived your life in light of the expectations of those around you. No, you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and have to explain how you were too much of a coward to boldly stand for God’s will.

Why is it that we are terrified of displeasing mere mortals but flippantly disobey and ignore God’s Spirit when it comes to decisions in our lives?

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Friends, seek God’s will and do not allow yourself to be led astray by “the way that seems right to man” because its end is death and destruction.