Episode 74: Why Humility Is Never Weakness

Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mac. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.

Kimberly Faith: Well, dad, this podcast about why humility is never weakness has been a great study for me.

John McLarty: I like it. It’s a great topic.Thought provoking. 

Kimberly Faith:  It kind of came about, I don’t remember where I was, but I was kind of eavesdropping on a conversation. I can’t remember what, you know, what the venue was. But these two people were discussing a particular world leader who had accomplished all these great things, and the woman made the comment. She said, he’s a good leader, but he would be great if he were more humble. And the man said, a world leader cannot be humble and be great. And my first thought was, I wonder if this guy thinks that Jesus was great.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know?

John McLarty: Because Jesus was great.

Kimberly Faith: He was.

John McLarty: And was very humble.

Kimberly Faith: I mean, there’s no world leader that has ever lived that has maintained a consistent focus throughout history even before he was born.

John McLarty: You know, there’s this thought in this culture. You just think of when people think about great quarterbacks or just various great leaders, they do think that just ego has got to be a part of that. Our culture kind of thinks that. And it’s not necessarily, it’s not true.

Kimberly Faith: It’s not true at all. Yeah.

John McLarty: And some great quarterbacks are full of themselves, but they don’t have to be to be great. And I know we know some that are not very humble and just after victory, they just point to heaven and say, God.

Kimberly Faith: Well, you know, I think Stephen Curry is a good example of a humble, great basketball player. And I believe I’m talking about the right person. He always thanks God.

John McLarty: Yeah. A lot of athletes do. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty:  And I always appreciate that. 

Kimberly Faith: I do too. 

John McLarty: I look for that. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: And that makes me admire them more.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly.

John McLarty: They just immediately point to heaven 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: And say, this is because of God, my talent.

Kimberly Faith: Well, you mentioned great you know, people who accomplish great things and are just, you know, kind of smack talkers. I kind of wonder after studying this, these ideas, I kind of wonder if they have only reached a very small portion of their greatness because they lack humility.

John McLarty: That’s true. They’ve limited themselves to a truer. Yeah, a greater greatness.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And so we’re going to talk about this cultural assumption you just mentioned today that the world equates humility with weakness and believes that greatness requires self promotion, dominance, and control. 

John McLarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: Because we’re also going to look at what Jesus taught because his teaching was very countercultural.

John McLarty: Jesus taught that humility is foundational to true greatness.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. And it’s so interesting that one of the tensions we’re going to talk about is the kind of the key tension that the same quality the world dismisses as weakness is the very posture that draws us into the presence and power of God’s greatness. You know, our central question is, you know, can humility actually be our source of strength rather than a sign of weakness? So, let’s you know, and I’m just going to defend this poor guy I overheard. You know, his conversation is, he probably has never been taught about what Jesus has said about humility.

John McLarty: A biblical perspective.

Kimberly Faith: Right. But Jesus did teach the exact opposite, that true greatness is impossible without humility. Why do you think that is?

John McLarty: Because it was so counter to our way of thinking. Number one, it’s the truth. Humility is kind of the key to number one, salvation. And then the key to serving others is humility. So, it’s the truth and then it’s so counter culture. It’s not our instinctive.

Kimberly Faith: Well, like we always do in our podcast, we go to God’s word. And let’s just start with Isaiah 57:15. And this is God talking. You know, he’s talking about humility. And he says, for thus says the Lord, I’m sorry. 

For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

John McLarty: That’s a great verse.

Kimberly Faith: It’s such a great verse. And so, one of the things that we actually talked about, in an earlier podcast, the Gifts of Christmas series, was the gift of humility, how humility is actually a gift. And, we can’t conjure it up on our own.

John McLarty: Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. And even you know, we know that a lost person, a person who’s never been born again, can conjure up some kind of humility. But we know that because when we’re born again, we are in Christ, and then the presence of Christ is as you know, having the genetic DNA of our soul and spirit now enables us to have the gift of humility. And, but isn’t it amazing that this our omnipotent, omniscient, loving God chooses to dwell with the humble.

John McLarty: He wants to bless the humble.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I can’t even really wrap my mind around that. You know, that the wisdom, the power, the love, the clarity of the God who created everything and runs everything wants to be dwelling in me.

John McLarty: Well, the lack of humility is pride.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: And pride cometh before a fall, and God resisteth the proud and gives grace unto the humble.

Kimberly Faith: You know what? Let’s just read that verse out of First Peter 5:5-7. You want to read that?

John McLarty: Sure. So First Peter 5:5-7. Yes. All of you be submissive one to another and be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you, key, he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him for he cares for you. I love that verse.

Kimberly Faith: Well, there’s so many truths in this verse. You know, we go back to original sin in the garden, right? When Satan said, did God really say? You know? And, you know, he was undermining the word of God and the power of God and the necessity for God.

And Eve said, you know, I want to be like God, so let me eat this fruit and disobey God. That was her pride. That was the pride of life saying, I can live without God.

John McLarty: And we think about this, as you said, this omniscient, loving, all powerful God. Why would we want to have him resisting us? 

Kimberly Faith: Right. And that’s a terrifying

John McLarty:  To have him against us. 

Kimberly Faith: Terrifying thought really. It should be terrifying. If it’s not terrifying to us, it’s because we have lost our way. We have been blinded.

John McLarty: And I think, as you’ve said before, and I use this phrase a lot, life is full of trouble just without us even causing it. Life is full of trouble. So wouldn’t we want God with us instead of resisting us? Of course we would.

Kimberly Faith: Right. I mean, it’s one thing to really think about, Well, I can do this without God, but it’s quite another, and I use the word terrifying because it is terrifying, to understand how much we need God and think we can do life without him. I think, like Eve was deceived, in the perfection of a garden, we’re often very deceived in the garbage dump of this world. You know? And so, but the solution, you know, once we know that the danger is pride and pride is simply independence from God, thinking we can do anything apart from God, right?

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And, you know, I mean, it’s not like beating your chest on the top of a mountain. Pride is pretty quiet a lot of times, like just thinking we can manage life without God, any aspect of our life. You know? And we think about worry, isn’t that what worry is?

John McLarty: Sure.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: Pride is just self 

Kimberly Faith: Self- reliance?

John McLarty: Reliance. Self aggrandization.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Just thinking, you know, and you see a lot of people that are just, it’s stubbornness, pride, kind of in a worldly way that it can achieve things.

Kimberly Faith: Bulldoggedness. 

John McLarty: Bulldoggedness. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Pride is not beating our chest and howling at the moon and saying, Look at this great thing I did. Pride is very sneaky. Worry. You know, how many times have I said to myself, you know, I’m a control freak, you know, about maybe my law practice? Well, I admit it, I am. I’m a bit of a control freak, but that is not an attribute. That’s not a virtue. That’s a symptom of pride.

John McLarty:  Right. 

Kimberly Faith: You know? Because pride essentially says, I don’t trust God with this, no matter how small it is.

John McLarty: I think one of the problems is the cultural view that humility is somehow equated with weakness, being a doormat, a pushover, and that’s not humility.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. So let’s talk about what humility is and what it isn’t. You just mentioned it’s not being a doormat. It’s not self hatred or self deprecation. It’s not passivity or weakness or insecurity.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Okay? What do you think true humility is?

John McLarty: I think one of the things is being thankful to God and understanding our position that we’re sinners saved by grace through faith and that God is great and that it’s just a blessing to be able to have a relationship with him, to serve him. And just to kind of not talk about people being put in our place like that’s kind of a fearful thing. But just kind of knowing that we’re the creature and God is the creator.

Kimberly Faith: That is a great way to put it. We talked about I think it was the last podcast, we talked about the difference between righteousness and self righteousness, right, true righteousness. You know, even to understand that our righteousness, whether that’s positional or practiced righteousness, comes from God. You know, it’s not our good works. It’s God’s good work in us, right? 

When we talk about that last verse we just read in First Peter about being clothed with humility, that is a striking phrase because what that means, if humility is a gift from God or, you know, meekness or humility, then we are clothed with Jesus Christ. We talked about the armor. You know, back in the beginning of the year, 2026, we talked about the armor, every piece being Jesus, right? Well, humility is also Jesus. It is also making him the center and not self the center.

John McLarty: So I’m just having a little, Yes, that’s true. I’m having a little flashback here of humility and pride and why humility is actually attractive. But someone full of pride can be successful. I don’t even know why I thought about this, but I had a friend in high school and his sister dated the star quarterback of the Red Raider football team. And he was a great quarterback and did great football things. But when she dated him, she couldn’t stand him because all he talked about was himself. So he wasn’t likable, but he was very successful as a quarterback.

Kimberly Faith: So interesting.

John McLarty: And I’m just thinking about clothed with humility. I could be in an organization and maybe have a boss that got a lot done, but no one can stand him. But a boss that can get a lot done, but has humility, is approachable. And I’m just thinking about the attractiveness to others that I feel like I could just have a conversation with that person instead of, you know, 

Kimberly Faith: Feeling intimidated or beaten down

John McLarty:  Yeah. Clothed with humility. I like it. That means if we’re clothed, you recognize my clothing. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. You have a plaid shirt on, I’ve got a sweater on. It’s interesting you say that because the phrase clothed with humility refers to a servant putting on an apron, just like Jesus did when he washed the disciples’ feet. And then Philippians 2:5-8 says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal of God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, a slave, coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

John McLarty: Well, there you go. That’s our great example.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Is Jesus. How did Jesus act? 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And was he great? Obviously, yes.

Kimberly Faith: Obviously. You know? And to the point of the earlier conversation I was talking about, you know, the problem isn’t with achieving greatness. It’s achieving greatness with the humility of Christ , in the way of Christ, and that it’s never the way we think it should look because the world culture has so influenced our mind. You think about what is the greatest miracle that ever occurs under the sun in this world?

John McLarty: One thing is for us to have the love of God for others.

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. And I believe the greatest miracle is when somebody gives their life to Jesus for salvation. 

John McLarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: Because that’s the only eternal work that’s ever done. I mean, think about it.

The only thing that’s going with us, this world will be destroyed someday, are the souls of people. So the greatest miracle is when somebody surrenders to Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior because it’s the only thing that changes eternity.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know? And I’m always welcome for somebody to say, Hey, that’s not the greatest miracle, but I think it’s the greatest miracle.

John McLarty: And then that allows us to love others.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. And that’s what humility really is. It’s putting Jesus first so that we can be second and also put others first because we have all we need in Jesus, right?

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And so, you know, and this kind of takes us to you know, we’re talking about what is humility, right? We know it’s not this doormat. We know this is not just a self deprecating 

John McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Being pushed around.

Kimberly Faith: Right. But really, and we did talk about this some.  Meekness is our strength under God’s control, but it’s really God’s strength under God’s control. It was kind of like that old saying. I had a client in my office the other day, he goes, You know, I like to say God never gives me more than I can handle. And I said, well, I like to say God never gives me more than he can handle because we’re not handling anything. And he started laughing. He’s a Christian. He says, you know, I think I must steal that. I said, I can’t say it belongs to me. I think it came right from God. And so I think that when we understand that any strength that we have ultimately comes from God, then it’s much easier to submit ourselves to God because we know everything we have. It’s like you said, blessed are the poor in spirit.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Right?

John McLarty: Well, and then blessed are the poor in spirit and blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. Right. And we talked about this in the Beatitudes series, how Jesus the Beatitudes are so brilliant. The way Jesus sets  up, you know, addressing our posture towards God first by poverty in spirit and mourning over sin. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they who mourn. That corrects our posture towards God, which then turns us to how we relate to others and blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth out of Matthew 5:5. Why do you think people say that meekness is weakness?

John McLarty: I think because of that cultural perception we’ve talked about, this idea that someone that’s successful needs to be arrogant and just full of pride and full of themselves. And a lot of successful people are that way because they’re just strong willed and they get their way, they impose their will upon others and that can bring success. 

Kimberly Faith: It can. 

John McLarty: And then people, what sometimes is considered humility, is falsely connected with just somebody being a pushover or just in a relationship, someone just allowing someone to walk all over them. But really, that’s not humility. That’s just kind of a person that has kind of a low self esteem, that’s not humility.

Kimberly Faith: That word self esteem is an interesting word. You know, anytime we’re thinking about ourself, what is self esteem anyway? It’s how you esteem yourself, how you think about yourself, right? And unless we understand we’re in Christ and everything good that we have comes from Christ, we’re never going to have a proper view of ourselves.

John McLarty: That’s a sad situation.

Kimberly Faith: It is.

John McLarty: And it allows others they don’t realize who they are in Christ, how important they are, loved by God. And, yeah, and then you have somebody typically take advantage of that. 

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. 

John McLarty: And, you know, just oppress them.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. Yeah. And actually, you know, it’s funny because I know we’re talking about the next podcast that is going to be answering the question of who am I? Who does God say that I am? And so we’re going to talk about that some more. But, you know, the Greek word for meek is praus, which means power under control, and you said that. And I know I’ve given this example again of the trained stallion and I you know, about how I was given the privilege to exercise my boss’s Arabian stallion

John McLarty: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: And just how incredible the ride was, but how horrible the ride would have been if he’d never been trained. But we’re in a race. You know, that horse, that, you know, powerful racehorse would never get on the track if he had not had that power brought under the control of the master. And as Christians, you know, when we understand that to be truly powerful in the race that matters because the only race that matters isn’t the race to get money, the race to buy new houses, the race to become a success in our profession. The real race is the destiny of souls and the glory of God.

John McLarty: The race to serve God, the spiritual warfare.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. And you think about this. Wild flesh driven strength does not win that race. You know, God has given us extraordinary power. I mean, I don’t know. How would you describe the power that Christ has given us, that we have in Christ?

John McLarty: Well, it’s the power of his spirit. So it’s the power to love others. But under control we’re still in this body of flesh. So, it’s to keep the flesh under control, to run that race with wisdom. And that’s so tricky, Kim, because you can be successful. It’s like Paul says in Romans, When I do good, evil is present with me. So, it’s running that race, letting God use our lives, but then not jumping on the stage into the spotlight. And that’s like,

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Taking credit for it.

John McLarty: I just, you know, whatever, led somebody to the Lord but that wasn’t us. I think it’s this continual acknowledgement that it’s God through us.

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. And I think if we understand the power source too, you know, the power source in Ephesians Chapter One, it says, What is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead? I mean, as far as physical miracles go, there’s probably no greater miracle than somebody being raised from the dead, right? And so, the Bible is saying

John McLarty: Well, you think, yeah, Jesus being raised from the dead, literally.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And then our born again souls were delivered from death unto life.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: According to John.

Kimberly Faith: But that power, if you were going to quantify that power, well, if you said, oh, John McLarty has the power to raise somebody from the dead, we’d say, well, let me see it. Well, God’s saying  in this verse, this inspired word of God, Paul’s telling the Ephesians, look, the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the power that lives in you.

John McLarty: In you.

Kimberly Faith: Because he is alive in you. And, you know, when we exercise strength in the flesh, all it produces is pride, division, anger, wasted battles. But humility, that our power under the control of God or the power that we’ve been given under the control of God lived for his purposes, takes what we are and magnifies it. I mean, it’s kind of like when they invented the lever. Is that what it is called?

John McLarty: The lever.

Kimberly Faith: The lever. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. The fulcrum.

John McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: That whole idea. We watched this guy take the refrigerator out of the house, you know, and he had this dolly, and we were just amazed. This little dolly had this mechanism that picked up this 500 pound refrigerator, however much it weighs.

John McLarty: Using leverage.

Kimberly Faith: And uses leverage to get it by himself.

John McLarty:  Right. 

Kimberly Faith: He was like Superman with the  lever. I’m sorry. I’m not saying it right.

And he took that down the stairs by himself, and it was like, that’s just a little kind of a sad little picture, but it’s a good example of how

John McLarty: Kind of controlled power. I’m thinking about channeled power. I mean, it’s very focused

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: On where it needed to tilt and coming up the stairs.

Kimberly Faith: Well, like a laser. 

John McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith:  Like a laser. If you had the power of the laser and it was diffused, it wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as when it’s focused. And so, yeah, humility never weakens us. It just channels God’s power through us.

John McLarty: I think it’s being constantly aware that it’s God’s strength through us. Anything good that happens, there is none good but God. And we can be good through the born again nature that God’s given us. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. 

John McLarty: And it’s that continual realization of that.

Kimberly Faith: I think you said something earlier that I think is really true is that thankfulness really brings us into that gift of humility more and more. Because the more thankful you are, can you be proud and thankful at the same time? I don’t know. I don’t think as it relates to God

John McLarty: When you’re thankful for what God has done for us, this kind of dissolves our pride.

Kimberly Faith: So, I think that’s a real key to receiving this gift of humility.

John McLarty: But it does not make us into just this weak reed. Like Jesus said of  John the Baptist, it’s not a weak reed. It’s just being humbled by God, living in humility. It’s not weakness. I think that’s what we’re saying here.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Well, what’s interesting is you know, when we are humble to the greatness that God gives,  that allows us to live in, it doesn’t become ours anymore. Therefore, we don’t have to defend it. So, it keeps us from clinging to our personal rights. We don’t have to bring up our rights. We don’t have to defend our image. We don’t have to demand vindication. And so therefore, a humble believer can endure injustice without bitterness, not because we’re powerless, but because our strength is restrained for God’s purposes.

John McLarty: And it magnifies the glory of God. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: It points to him.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. I mean, because it’s so counterintuitive to what the world thinks should happen. You know, when we return kindness for evil, that is a greater testimony than we’ve returned evil for evil, when we can point to people to you know, I

John McLarty: Yeah. You mentioned the miracles earlier. For us to be able to love others is a miracle. And it brings glory to God, and it’s only because of him. And I was just, I mean, the Psalms are just full of, one of the great purposes of our life is to bring glory to God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. 

John McLarty: To give him credit. 

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Point to him.

Kimberly Faith: Well, Paul said, I think it was Paul that wrote, whether you drink or eat or whatsoever you do, do all for the glory of God, right? And so what humility does is position us to do that because you know, and what a relief when you know, one of the ways that humility manifests itself in my life and I again, this is just it’s always a blessing when it happens, and I want it to be less rare. I want it to be more common. But when I have an issue in my office that comes up that I don’t know how to handle, it’s a crisis. And I can say, God, wait a minute. This is your law practice. You have to figure this out. In the meantime, you just tell me what to do right now.

John McLarty: So it gives you a peace. 

Kimberly Faith: Yes. 

John McLarty: You can rest in that.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. But the road to getting there is not a one off. It is a constant praying that God will keep us in a thankful state of mind also is kind of that dual effect. It also keeps us in a humble state of mind.

John McLarty: Yeah, I think that’s a good point. This isn’t a one time thing because our flesh is with us continually and our flesh, the body of this flesh, is continually prideful. It’s all about self. And there’s a part of us that loves, Oh, he’s a great person, or He did a great thing. And, you know, we have to admit, our flesh is there and likes that.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. We want to be significant. 

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And I think this is why I, you know, when we were studying this and I was kind of like the Lord was put on my heart when I heard this conversation to kind of dig into this subject about whether humility was weakness, right? It all comes back to it kind of it kind of also snowballed into the next podcast, which is who am I? Because the fact is that the more humble we are, the more confidence we have in God, not ourselves.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And because humility allows his power to come in and work through us. And the more it’s kind of like the more we see something being done, the more we believe in it and then the more we want to do it. Because, you know, I think God does my life way better than I do. But I can sit here and say that and then turn around thirty minutes later and try to do it my own way again because my brain hasn’t been trained to think that way.

John McLarty: You just go back to God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: So, grace is favor. It’s an unmerited favor, but we want God’s grace. We don’t want him resisting us. So, if we just humble ourselves, like you say, God, I’m just giving this to you, he gets the credit, he gets the glory. So, I’m going to figure this out. That’s our tendency. 

Kimberly Faith: It is. 

John McLarty: There’s a problem. I’m going to figure this out.

Kimberly Faith: And  it’s a habit. It’s a really bad habit. If our first response is prayer, instead of making prayer our last resort, you know, then we’re going to get a lot more done anyway because God’s handling our life. But that requires this humility to say, You know, God, you said my life is hidden with you, so I’m hiding it now.

John McLarty: And you know what? He always has a better plan.

Kimberly Faith: He does. He does.

John McLarty: I mean, I’ve seen examples where somebody does solve a problem, but God has a better plan. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. 

John McLarty: It’s not like we can’t solve a problem in life, but God’s way is going to be better.

Kimberly Faith: Well, the scripture gives us so many ways to understand how humility leads us to true greatness. You just mentioned James 4:6 where God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Grace makes our life better. You know, we all want more grace, not more judgment. You know? And when God says, you know, I’m going to give you grace today and you’re not going to get sick today. Or, you know, you did this really stupid thing, but I’m not going to make you suffer the consequences today, because I know your heart. In your heart, you want to serve me. You know? In your heart, you’re trying to keep me in the center. We, and I understand you’ve got lots of baggage. We all want more grace. Humility gives us more grace. That’s a wonderful gift.

John McLarty: This is a little bit of a side, but this is just something the Lord showed me. It’s a little bit of a rabbit, but just through the Lord, and it’s putting aside our pride, is giving grace to ourselves. As we grow older, our minds slip a little bit. And at times, you might meet somebody and they know your name, but you don’t know theirs, and you just feel terrible about it. And then like, I’ll let those things bother me. And sometimes the Lord says, John, you’re in your 70s. Give yourself some grace. Don’t beat yourself up over that. It’s okay. So, yeah, we can I mean, God showed me that because I was letting things bother me? Three hours later, I was like, Oh, I couldn’t remember that person’s name.  I was like, Well, that’s okay, John. You don’t have the same memory you did of an 18 year old in college.

Kimberly Faith: Well, that’s kind of interesting you say that because it’s kind of full circle. You know, we talk about humility being a gift. So God giving you grace is also letting you release yourself of the pride of not being able to think about, oh, 

John McLarty: Yeah, it’s prideful to think, I shouldn’t have

Kimberly Faith:  Right.

John McLarty:  I should remember every name I’ve ever heard all my life.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Another example, the Lord kind of dealt with me in a different way about that same thing because I, you know, I don’t know how many people go through my law practice and I can’t remember. I go to court. I met a client once, and I’m like so I just was like, Lord, do I take that picture and take it with me so I and then look around like I’m looking for them?

What does that look like? And the Lord’s like, no. You just need to be transparent. 

John McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith:  And so a lot of times when I’m prepping somebody for a hearing, I’ll if it’s a one time person, I’m only going to meet them once. I’ll just say to them, look, I cannot remember what you look like, and I’m sorry. And I could go stalk you on Facebook and try to figure it out, but I’m just going to tell you, when you see me in court, just wave at me and introduce yourself because that’s not my gift. I don’t

John McLarty: Yeah. And that’s a good practical kind of advice. Humility can bring this transparency, which just brings peace. You’re not putting on airs to anybody.

Kimberly Faith: You mentioned people are attracted to that. Nobody has ever said to me, gotten offended and acted like, Oh, well, if you can’t remember who I am, then I need another lawyer. And matter of fact, a funny side note, I actually had somebody call me one time who had fired their other lawyer and said, Well, he couldn’t even remember who I was. And they were just an initial consultation. I stopped. I said, nope. Stop. Stop. Stop. If you’re looking for a lawyer who can remember who you are, then you’re in the wrong place. And the lady said, well, at least you’re honest about it. So I’m going to hire you anyway.

John McLarty: Exactly. 

Kimberly Faith:  But I wanted to be real clear. I was just like, look, I don’t qualify either if that’s your standard, you know. But in addition to, you know, humility giving us grace, the Bible says it also gives us honor.

John McLarty: Looking at Proverbs 18:12, before destruction, the heart of man is haughty and before honor is humility.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. And Proverbs 22:4 says, By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Man, what a promise.

John McLarty: I’m thinking of that parable where Jesus said, something about don’t go into a room and sit at the front of, the head of the table, but you’re invited. You’re made to come in and you’re invited to the front of the table. That’s this idea that before, by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor in life.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Yeah.

John McLarty: So it’s not like great things can’t happen to us, that we’re just so humble, we’re just in the total background of life all the time. No, God can put us I just think of a friend of mine that’s a missionary down to Latin American countries and a very humble man, but he’s held in high esteem in the culture of the countries that he’s had an incredible influence in. And he goes down and I think he had a thirtieth anniversary of his work and they just honored him.

Kimberly Faith: Wow. I happen to know this person, and he is such a joy. When you’re around him,  you know you’ve been in the presence of Jesus, and you don’t feel intimidated.

John McLarty: Right. Very approachable.

Kimberly Faith: Very approachable. And it goes back to that clothing of humility. Humility makes us approachable, which is why we are here for God’s glory. If we are proud, then we’re cutting people off from the kingdom of God. What a sobering thought. Gosh. You know? To have our pride pivot someone’s eternity forever. Eternity is a long time, and that’s a motivation to me to really think about how to cultivate humility in my own life. I know we’ve talked about it being a gift, and I think you’ve really hit the nail on the head when you say that humility is cultivated by thankfulness. I really think that’s true, dad. I hadn’t thought about that before we started talking about this. But the more that we are thankful, the more dependent we are and the more humble we are. And that gift is cultivated through thankfulness.

John McLarty: Yeah. I think there are, in Romans, where it talks about mankind descending into rebellion toward God. One of the first things that happened to them is they became unthankful.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And then their foolish heart was darkened.

John McLarty: Their foolish heart was darkened. 

Kimberly Faith: That’s a really good point. And I have to say, humility also, one of the benefits of humility, we’re only talking about three of them today. Well, I mean, maybe more, but brings us close to God. And I love the verse in Micah 6:8 where he kind of just sums up. He said, he has shown you, oh 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? Wow.

John McLarty: I love that verse.

Kimberly Faith: I love that verse too. And when I had somebody criticizing, you know, well, I’m not a Christian because I think that, you know, Christians are always judging people, and, you know, it’s their way or the highway. And I read this verse to them, and I said, you know what? You’re right. You’re right. There are a lot of people who are misrepresenting God, but let me just show you what God said. And, you know, and then I tied them into what you always say about Jesus. I said, you know, Jesus did what was just. He loved mercy, and he walked humbly. That’s what he did. And then he said, you need to be like me. And he even promised us that we would do greater works than he does. That’s mind blowing to me that we can do that Jesus said that. I don’t even know what that means. I know that we can bring people into the kingdom through our testimony and through the gospel.

John McLarty: Well, it kind of goes back to you saying that if, and it is, one of the greatest miracles is a soul being saved, than Christ followers, more souls have been saved through the work of Christ followers than he and his ministry. 

Kimberly Faith: That makes a lot of sense. 

John McLarty: I’ve never thought of  that before. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah, that totally makes sense.

John McLarty:  One of the greatest works is seeing souls saved and his disciples and then through his church and just believers through the ages. 

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. 

John McLarty: They continued that work that he started.

Kimberly Faith:  Absolutely. Well, again, I, just kind of winding this up a little bit, I just want to drive this point home that true humility is never weakness. It’s never weakness. It puts us into the power line of God, really. It taps us into that power that’s far beyond we could even ask for or imagine, really.

John McLarty: And really, even people that are under the false impression in the world’s culture that, you know, like you started this, the guy said, Well, so and so would be a greater leader if he was humble. But when people see a person that is doing great things through the power of God but humble about it, that is not perceived as weakness. That’s attractive.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Like we said, when a quarterback makes a play and just you know, we see it on TV. When they’re pointed up, they’re pointing, they’re saying, God did this. It’s a thing that started, I think, in the ’70s as athletes. It’s him.

Kimberly Faith: Pointed heavenward. Yeah.

John McLarty:  Yeah. Pointed heavenward. Yeah. And I love seeing that.

Kimberly Faith: I do too.

John McLarty: I think that’s a humble person.

Kimberly Faith: Just to

John McLarty: Not a weak person.

Kimberly Faith: It’s not. And again, I always like to make this final point that, you know, we talk about these things not because you or I are the model. You know? Jesus was the model.

John McLarty: Jesus was the model.

Kimberly Faith: His word is  the manual, right? We’re here to, iron sharpens iron, with each other. And earlier today, we were talking in the living room about the importance of church and the church community being a place where we can grow in the attributes and the mind of God and the attitudes of God. Humility is one of those places because we have an opportunity to be servants, to wash each other’s feet, you know, in a metaphorical sense, to go and fix the sink of the person who may be bedridden, to maybe go and clean the bathroom at church, do those jobs that according to the Bible we talked about the gifts, the eternal gifts, the gifts of Christmas series. God doesn’t miss anything that we do when it’s motivated by love.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know?

John McLarty: That’s good.

Kimberly Faith: And only humility brings us into the ability to carry out his work in love because we know that everything, even our breathing, is because of who God is.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: So humility is never weakness. It is spirit guided strength, God centered confidence, and the pathway to true eternal greatness.

John McLarty: I like it, the pathway to true greatness, which is I mean, it’s such a juxtaposition, a paradox. You would not  think the pathway to true greatness is being humble. Yeah. That’s exactly what Jesus showed us.

Kimberly Faith: Right, right.

John McLarty: Truth.

Kimberly Faith: Truth. Good job dad.

John McLarty: Truth in love.

Jacob Paul: You’ve been listening to the Truth in Love podcast with your hosts, Kimberly Faith and John Mac. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us at gofaithstrong.com.