4A23.    Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13.  To be humble simply means to live with God as the God of my life, who is life for me.  Humility is to live in the genuine and absolute truth, the reality that God is the source of all goodness.  Surrendering my life to God means to forego the natural desire for me to be at the center of my life.  This is a struggle up until our last breathe.

Matthew 5:1-12a.  In beginning of his public ministry, Jesus said in Matthew 4:17b, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  He was calling upon us to repent of belonging to the kingdom of earth and coming under its kingship and instead to embrace God as the ruler or king of our lives, even while we still live on this earth.  Jesus gave his disciples a lesson or teaching in how to become a people of his kingdom.  Live, filled with God and not with this world. Grieve with those who are hurting so to be a comfort to them.   Live in the truth that is found in God and not in what this world claims to be true.  Find one’s life satisfaction in doing well in God’s eyes, no matter what others may think of us.  Love those who have hurt us.  May God be our only motivation.  Live in union with God’s Will.  Be happy when people challenge us for confronting evil.  Be happy when people persecute us as they did Jesus.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31.  In Acts 17:22-32 Paul preached elegantly to the learned and wise in the Areopagus of Athens but was rejected by them because it was not their worldly wisdom.  So Paul went to the lowly people of Corinth who, since they were not filled with the philosophies and wisdom of this world, were ready to accept God’s wisdom.  The only one who possesses the knowledge of the entirety of reality or truth is the God who made this universe.  What is not of God is an illusion and self-deception!