Mortality and Humility

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading, titled Mortality and Humility, was written by Wynn Collier. Ancient scholars Jerome and Tertullian reference stories of how in ancient Rome, after a general triumphed in an epic victory, he would parade atop a gleaming chariot down the capital's central thoroughfares from dawn to sunset, the crowd would roar, the general would bask in the adoration, reveling in the greatest honor of his life.

However, legend has it that a servant stood behind the general the entire day, whispering into his ear, memento mori, remember you will die. Amid all the adulation, the general desperately needed the humility that came with remembering that he was mortal. James wrote to a community infected with prideful desires and an inflated sense of self-sufficiency. Confronting their arrogance, he spoke a piercing word in James chapter 4, saying, God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. What they needed was to humble themselves before the Lord. And how would they embrace this humility? Like Roman generals, they needed to remember that they would die.

You do not even know what will happen tomorrow, James insisted. You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. And owning their frailty freed them to live under the solidity of the Lord's will rather than their own fading efforts. When we forget that our days are numbered, it can lead to pride. But when we're humbled by our mortality, we see every breath and every moment as grace, memento mori.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from James chapter 4 verses 7 through 17. Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to morning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up. Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.

But you, who are you to judge your neighbor? Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life?

You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

If anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. Let's pray. God, thank you for the reminder that our lives are temporary and that the praises and admiration of others may feel good in the moment, but it has no lasting value or benefit. In everything we do, may it be to bring you honor. And when we receive praise, may we always redirect it to you. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening. I'm Steven and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.