Titus 2 Men And Women

The King's Daughter
by Sharon Merhalski

Many years ago my pastor grew weary of my false humility.  In my case it came from a total lack of Christ-Esteem which was an un-dealt with outgrowth from my dysfunctional childhood.  I was more than sort of a mess.  I was also my pastor’s secretary and my ‘knowledge’ of my ineptness did not match my capabilities.  Needless to say my pastor came up with one of his wonderful two point sermons over the coffee pot.  Eighteen years ago his --coffee pot" sermon embedded itself into my heart and God kept it written on the inside of my eyelids.  The truth that I was a daughter of the King of King’s grew deep roots that pervaded my life.

Recently I received a note about one of our web site devotions:

--I have always loved Oswald Chambers but do not totally agree with this devotion. I understand what God has done for me and those that trust Him..but we are supposed to be meek and humble. We can know to ourselves what we are and what God has done for us...but we are to show humility to the world....I struggle with pride and constantly fight the battle of the flesh. I am trying hard to find that meekness and humility that Christ talks about. I am in no way denying what Christ has done for me but at the same time...showing this to the unsaved world could paint me as a "self- righteous saint". I could be just prattling but I look to these devotions to help me become the Titus 2 Woman."

Believe me I understand your concerns, pride is a constant battle. To be humble and meek is a good thing before God...as long as it is based in truth.

I am thinking of my daughter....I taught her to be a seamstress. If someone complimented her on her work and she thought meekness meant to say she didn't do very well, or she really isn't that good, would the person she is talking to want me for a sewing teacher? And as her mother how would that make me feel? I wonder how God feels with our demeaning His teaching and ability to enable us? I wonder if others who hear us talk about our abilities and accomplishments want God to teach them anything?

First let’s go to the Strong’s Concordance and define meekness and humility:

Meekness: mildness, gentleness, humbleness, peaceable, quiet, still, lowly (defined in the dictionary as:ordinary, seated to a low position or surrendered to be a servant).

Psalm  22:26, 147:6, 45:4 ; Zephanaiah 2:3; I Peter 3:4; Ephesians 4:2; Titus 3:2; James 3:13

Humble:gentle, saintly, meek; to bring low, abase (in condition of the heart)

 Psalm 9:12, 10:12; Proverbs 16:19, 22:4; Isaiah 57:15; Matthew 18:4

Humility of Mind:  modesty, gentleness, meekness  Acts 20:19

Webster’s Dictionary:

Meek:  patient and mild, not inclined to anger or resentment, submissive

Humble:  not proud, low in rank (subordinate) UNPRETENTIOUS==pretense  means a false claim, a false show of something, make believe.  So to be unpretentious means to ‘get real’...live and speak the truth.

Very, very, humbly I say that stronger and older Christians than I am have always told me my greatest character trait is meekness. I am a rather quiet woman who God has enabled to have a servant's heart. However, I live my life in the truth--God’s truth-- that I am a Princess in the court of the King of Kings! I am His daughter and an heir and joint-heir with Jesus Christ. If I am abiding in Christ then IN HIM I am a V.I.P. in the court of the King of Kings!

When I think of a princess I think of the English Royalty in the last century:  How did a princess act?  How did she carry hereself?  Did she not get her --assured presence" from the fact that she is a member of the royal court?  What was her dimeanor?  She was modest, gentle, quiet and humble with all of the assurance of her position in life.  She had humble assurance based in truth and her heart and her mind were prepared to do all of the king’s bidding.  

How much more should we carry ourselves like a princess in England?  Our position is for eternity, not just for this lifetime.  We should have more of an --assured presence before the world"...for our Father owns it all!

Daughter of the King of Kings:

Psalm 10:16a----The Lord is king for ever and ever:"

Psalm 74:12a----For God is my King of old,"

I Timothy 1:17----Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen."

I Timothy 6:15----Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of Lords;"

Revelation 1:5-6----And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

Child of God

(emphasis in bold-type is mine)

Romans 8:15-17----For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."

Romans 9:7-8----Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."

Romans 9:26----And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God."

 Galatians 4:28----Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise."

 It does not show the world the power and enablement of God by displaying false humility and weakness. Who would want to be saved to become weak and not very good at anything? As women all we need to do is study the Proverbs 31 woman. She did not show false humility to look godly. In God she was able to do all that was required of her--and do it all well. The key is "IN GOD"....in ourselves we are nothing.

--Many people...believe in a God who takes sin seriously, who has reminded mankind of moral failure, but they stop there.  Keenly aware of inadequacy, they live in the slough of despond--worthless, sinful, guilty.  They find no comfort in God for their lack of self-acceptance.  His verdict only confirms what they already believe about themselves.  They may say they believe their sins can be forgive, but (to them) God’s love is conditional.  It is based on an if.  ‘IF-love’ allows people to experience little freedom from their feeling of inadequacy.  They are more conscious of themselves than of God....

Phillip Brooks once said, --The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is."  I like that.  It is true to the teaching of the Bible.  God has declared our value, our personal worth.  He created us with our present genes; He can redeem all of the experiences that make our life.  So stand up tall; give Him all that you are.  We do not need to fuss over ourselves.  Boasting is excluded when one is in proper relationship with God.

Others progress a step further.  They know God loves them and has accepted them, but are quite sure that He loves them because they have trusted Him and because they do their very best to be as good as possible. ‘Because love’ is risky --given an imperfect action and the love disappears.  But even worse is the high standard of performance for the wrong reason.  God loves because.  People caught in this trap usually come from backgrounds where love is given on this basis of performance, and witheld if there is disapproval.

I am increasingly convinced that a major cause of the despondency, the ineffectual living, the lack of freedom, the feeling of worthlessness so common in today’s world is a failure to understand what God has done in redeeming us--and how and why He has done it....

God means for His children to live with an enormous sense of well-being.  He made it possible for us to be free from all our old hang-ups and the opinions that bind us.  He constantly assures those who trust Him of His steadfast love.  You shall be mine, says the lord of hosts , in the day when I make up my jewels.  He calls us His children, and we enter into the wonder of the Fatherhood of God.  He promises his continued presence with us.  --I will never leave you nor forsake you."  He tells us not to be anxious because He knows all our needs.  His resources are available to us as we trust Him.  Those who come and eat at his table are satisfied....

If God accepts us, are we not insulting him to fail to accept ourselves?  --Being justified we have peace with God," Paul writes in Romans 5:1.  Why not peace with ourselves as well?

I am not talking about an egotistic self-love; I am talking about the kind of self-acceptance that affirms our personal worth and frees us from the prison of self-absorption.  When we need constant reassurance about our personhood, we have set self in the center.  The Psalmist reveals the secret to mental, spiritual and physical health so beautifully: --I have set the Lord (not self) always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.  Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope." (Psalm 16:8-9) Notice that the heart, the soul and the body--the whole person--is affected by this perspective.

Our problem with reflecting on self is that our thoughts either lead us to self-praise and self-satisfaction or plunge us into discouragement and despair.  Whichever it may be, inevitably any view of God is shut out and we lose the wonder of being justified.  When we get hold of what it cost God to justify us, and the love that led Him to do it, our self view takes on biblical perspective.  God has redeemed us; we can lift up our heads and shout praises.  God’s love is an in-spite-of kind of love--the kind of love that is safe, that lets us dump our load honestly before him, assured of his constancy....

We make our own prisons.  God’s invitation is to come out.  Knowing some restless, seeking woman, ill at ease with herself and with her world, I have often thought, She needs to sit on the Lord’s lap and let Him love her and quiet her a bit.  I have sat there often myself and come away refreshed in my own person.  It’s the Lord’s promise, you know.  --As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you;" (Isaiah 66:13)  --Gladys Hunt --Ms. Means Myself--Being a Woman In An Uneasy World"

God has enabled me to be a good wife, mother, seamstress, writer and Bible teacher, etc.  If I were to say to others, --oh, I don't know--I'm not very good at........." I would be lying and degrading my Lord. He made an individual path for my life so that I could be taught to do things well to accomplish His will--and then He enables me to do what He arranged for me to learn. IN the Lord I can do these things well. In my own strength/flesh I would flounder.

I hope this helps. I often tell women to roll their shoulders back as they realize they are blood-bought and children of the King of Kings. God tells us to remember our landmarks---what He has done in our lives to enable us to be used to glorify our Heavenly Father. And when we are given a compliment for a deed well done let us always, with our --thank you", remember to give God the glory due Him:

"Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold.  Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off."  (Job 36:24-25)

"I Will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." (Psalms 34:1-3)

As we roll our shoulders back and see ourselves as a princess we need to remember that God asks us to love ourselves so that we can love others....Christ-Esteem--NOT self-esteem--for in myself I am nothing. (There is a chapter in my book called "Telling Yourself The Truth". It is also on the web site as an article.)

The following is the article that prompted this question and answer:

By The Grace Of God

I Am What I AM

"But by the grace of God I am what I am:
and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain;
but I laboured more abundantly than they all:
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."

I Corinthians 15:10

The way we continually talk about our own inability is an insult to the Creator. The deploring of our own incompetence is a slander against God for having overlooked us. Get into the habit of examining in the sight of God the things that sound humble before men, and you will be amazed at how staggeringly impertinent they are. "Oh, I shouldn't like to say I am sanctified; I'm not a saint." Say that before God; and it means--"No, Lord, it is impossible for You to save and sanctify me; there are chances I have not had; so many imperfections in my brain and body; no, Lord, it isn't possible." That may sound wonderfully humble before men, but before God it is an attitude of defiance.

Again, the things that sound humble before God may sound the opposite before men. To say, Thank God, I know I am saved and sanctified is in the sight of God the acme of humility, it means you have so completely abandoned yourself to God that you know He is true. Never bother your head as to whether what you say sounds humble before men or not, but always be humble before God, and let Him be all in all.

There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfill His purpose through your life. One individual life may be of priceless value to God's purposes, and yours may be that life.

--Oswald Chambers

My Utmost For His Highest

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