“If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.”Mark 9:35
It is apparent that the majority of people do whatever they can to, as they see it, better themselves, their prospects, income, position and standing in the eyes of others. That is often manifested by how we take every opportunity to promote ourselves and raise our profile above our contemporaries so that we stand out from them.
Strange then that when it comes to our spiritual walk, we can at times adopt what can only be described as an unreal, pseudo-humble mask – because we know deep down that such an attitude of heart is not in line with what Yehovah’s Word demands of us. It is unreal, a mask and an easily seen-through one at that. Take that same person out of a religios setting and place them in a secular job interview, and that person will instinctively switch from being Dr Jekyll to being Mr Hyde. However, Yehovah requires truth in the inward parts, in the depth of our hearts (Psalm 51:6), and such a false veneer is an abomination to Him.
If we genuinely want to please Yehovah we need to learn to remove the masks we so quickly adopt to please ourselves and others, repent of our hypocrisy and ask Yehovah to create in us a clean and righteous heart so we can stand before Him in confidence. We must ask Him to equip, enable and empower us to serve both Him and all those around us, to whom He calls us to minister. False and insincere masks are far from pleasing to Him – but He is delighted to see us as being great in His kingdom when we have an honest desire to be a servant of all. So, if you want to be great in Yehovah’s Kingdom, you know what you have to do.