Zanele Tlhakanelo

Good deeds are related to humility and compassion in that when you take care of the poor and the needy, your focus is on serving others and not the self. Jesus Christ taught us to take care of the widows, orphans and the poor and He also demonstrated how to have compassion on all people. When He served the multitude who followed Him, it was a lesson to all of us that it is not about the needs of the self but of other people. In the early church, sharing of food with the hungry, clothing the naked and providing shelter were common among the people. In the Book of Acts we also know that those who had properties even sold them so that they could share among themselves and that no one could be noticed as being lacking. Faith without deeds is dead. It is important to understand that we are to glorify God by doing good at all times. We cannot say we love God yet our brothers that we see daily while suffering, we do not take care of them. God's love is a demonstration of our faith that we have been saved and therefore we must be generous with what we have as God gave us His only begotten Son that we may have life in abundance.

Pride fuels conflict because it makes the person dictate what others are supposed to hear and do. The person causing conflict believes that he/she is charge of the situation and does not want to listen to other. He/She believes that the last word must come from him/her. These are people who are always selfish and their opinion matters over other people's opinions. Fighting and quarreling prevent a peaceful life because the person who normally starts that has no patience of listening to others. He/she is disrepectful and always wants his/her agenda to prevail over other people. God-fearing people do not pick up fights and quarrels but will always want to peaceably remedy the situation but those with a fighting spirit and most often caused by drunkenness, do not want peace and will always quarrel over small matters. What is at the root of our fighting is that we want things that we do not get and what we do not have. Most of the time jealousy can cause a person to fight with someone because you think that the other person is better than you and just pick up a fight over nothing. These fights are normally caused by selfish desires. Conflict is painful and also messy, therefore, most people try to avoid it but it is important that matters be confronted and dealt with in order to clear such issues. If the conflict is ignored, it is like sweeping dirt under the carpet and each time the dirt accumulates, the conflict worsens. At time it is done to bring about peace but I strongly believe that peace will come once the matter has been resolved. Some of the ways to diasgree, agreeably, humbly is that we allow the person to cool off because if the person is maybe drunk, it will be a futile exercise to argue with him/her. As a child of God, it is important to always make peace and show true humility towards all men.

Living God's way require humbling ourselves before God expects us to be obedient to the Will of God. Jesus Christ must be in the center of our lives so that we do not do as it our flesh dictates but always listening to the Holy Spirit as He guides our lives. We must be compassionate to the needs of all God's people and always remember the Great Commission as we are called to lead God's people to the Light, Jesus Christ. As God's children, we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, therefore, humbling ourselves before God is key for us to carry out God's mandate.

Pride makes God our adversary because it makes us not to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. It makes us think we are self-sufficient and do not lack anything forgetting that the mercy of God gives us the strength to have all that God wills us to have. It blinds us in thinking that we do not need God as we are able to achieve without Him. Pride puts God far away from what we think are our own doing and not even thanking Him for minute and big things we have in life. Power of example states that God has entrusted us to feed His sheep and not to manipulate His people by using gimmicks to entice them in believing miracles that elders use to attract people to believe that they are called by God to perform. I may be controversial here because I may not know how God has called each one of us but there are instances where an elder can ask women to pay a certain amount and have their ring fingers blessed for them to get married. This is manipulation of the office and nowhere has Christ done such a thing. God "lifting us up in due time" means waiting for God's appointed time to answer our prayers. When we have made known our requests to Him, let not fear and anxiety creep in and think that God does not care in answering our petitions and supplications because we know that God's timing is perfect. In Isaiah 55: 8-9 the Word of God says "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways." Rest assured that God will lift you up as you humble yourself and acknowledge Him as the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.

The role of pride in the worldliness is that whatever the achievements a person receives are based on the self and not acknowledging that it is God who gives us the ability to acquire all that we have. Pride is boasting about what you have done to have all the things you need to enjoy yourself and not even care about the widows, the poor and the orphans that live in your community. Some people even boast about how much they tithe so that they can be applauded. By the way, tithing is a personal matter between yourself and God and people do not even have to know about that. We can live holy lives by subjecting ourselves under God's authority. If we allow the flesh to rule us and not the spirit, we will surely be out of the will of God. We must allow the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and us in Him to guide, lead, direct, advise and help us in other that our lives can be perfected in Christ. "Stealing the glory" is when you trust in your own power and nowhere think that God is at work in your life. We must acknowledge that without God, whatever we have and have achieved comes from Him and give thanks continually to what God continues to do in our lives. We do not have to forget to thank Him for life because some of us think that waking up is a right whereas it is a privilege.When you survive a car accident you give yourself credit based on your driving skills. In everything, we must give thanks according to 1 Thessalonians 5:18. I even thank God for assisting me to answer the questions that are asked here. It is dangerous because it offends God if we do not acknowledge Him. When Jesus Christ healed the 10 lepers and only 1 coming back to thank Him, He was offended and asked if He did not heal 10 and only one came back. If you do not thank God, it means that you believe that all the powers are from you and that can be very dangerous.

Small business can promote itself by understanding that service is key as it is there to serve the needs of the community and as such integrity and honesty are important in laying the foundation of that business to flourish. The customers must be comfortable to deal with the small business as they know that they will not be taken advantage of but whatever service is rendered is godly and that there scales are not manipulated for a wrongful gain. The guidelines are that humility, transparency, honesty, trustworthiness and commitment are important in providing the real deal to the people you service. You always put the needs of your customers first before thinking about your gains.

It is not good to use flattery to smooth social situations as it is not genuine and sincere. It is used to manipulate the situation to win over people and as such the whole situation is like buying the face of the one flattered to think that he/she is really appreciated. If it is used to get our way with a difficult person it is still wrong because the situation can only last for a while but upon realizing that it was flattery that was used, that can worsen the situation. Flattery will get you nowhere so says the English proverb. God hates flattery as seen in Proverbs 26 verses 23 and 28 which says "Smooth words may hide a wicked heart, just as a pretty glaze covers a clay pot." "A lying tongue hates its victims and flattering words can cause ruin." Proverbs 29 verse 5 says "To flatter friends is to lay a trap for their feet." 1 Thessalonians 2: 5-6 and Romans 16: 18, these scriptures are a clear indication that God hates flattery. If the Word of God says love your neighbor as you love yourself, you will not use flattery to deceive the one you love because in doing so, you will not be serving Christ but your own interests.

Ambition is the desire to reach a certain goal and not necessarily that a person has pride. When God has called you, you will be able to focus on the work ahead of you and more often enquire of the Lord if the task ahead is challenging . The main aim is to do the Will of God without putting yourself first or doing that using your strength. A leader without ambition, is a leader who lacks trust in God. When God calls a leader, He gives direction and when you lack ambition, you will not be able to fulfill the call and depend on others for support. A leader without ambition does not have a vision for growth in knowing the Will of God and knowing that His sustenance will make you achieve your vision.

Faith related Christian assertiveness is that we are able to bold the throne of grace because the confidence that we have states that we do not depend on our own limited understanding but that we trust the Holy Spirit to guide, lead, direct, advise and help us to carry our God-given assignment. We do not do as we wish but our obedience is in doing the will of God. Courage is that we stand for the truth that is the Word of God. Most often, Christian compromise the truth in order to be accepted by the societ but when you are assertive, you will be able to say what the Word of God states and not only that live the Word. Courage says you do not live a double-sided life where people get confused as to who you are but whatever you say about the Word of God is what people see you to be and what you expect people to be. Assertiveness means being able to stand for what you believe in and challenging any contradictions about the Word of God. Submission means doing the will of God as expected by Him and being faithful in carrying out the instructions of God without questioning anything. Assertiveness is not opposed to humility but understanding that what you do is done through love and truth. When you understand that God has called you to do His Will, you will do so with assertiveness and humility knowing that you do not depend on your own strength but God who called you will carry and sustain you in all what you do for His Kingdom. Factors that keep leaders from being assertive is lack of confidence because when you know the Will of God, you will not fear any confrontation. Lack of trust means not trusting that God who called you will keep you from falling. Lack of self-control because you need to listen to the small still voive and not do what pleases you but be upright and surrender everything to God. The heroes of faith were able to walk according to the Will of God and trusted God in everything that they did. They understood that the call was from God and had to be obedient in order to fulfill the call. They were fully dependent to God and trusted Him without doubt that He who has called them will see them through all the storms they faced.

Moses is called the most humble man in the world because he trusted God and dependent on Him in everything that he did. Moses listened to God and carried out the instructions that God as put before him. His obedience indicated that he was indeed a person with humility who was not self-centered but followed every word that was given to Him by God. His essence of his humility was that he never defended himself from his critics but allowed God to fight his battles for him. He understood the Word of God in Romans 12:19 which says "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." When God called him, he told God about his inability to lead but God was not concerned about that as He knew that He would support him. He never promoted or exalted himself. Jesus' humility reflected a gentle and lowly spirit. He was compassionate and took care of the needs of all the people irrespective of their race and status in the community. Jesus came to save all humankind and as such sacrifice His Kingship for all to be saved. He was obedient to the call of God and had to serve people as a sign to His disciples that servanthood is key in the Kingdom of God. Leaders today must know that they are called to serve and not to be served. They need to know how to humble themselves and understand that humility is key in carrying out God's work. Trusting and depending on God are key points because you cannot lead people using your own strength but being obedient to God will always direct your path.

Motives are important to genuine humility because they make you not to pretend to be something that you are not. We need to know that whatever we do in pretence, God sees the heart. We can fool people by our motives but we cannot fool God. It is therefore important that when we help those in need, we do not move about letting the whole world know because if we do, we have already received our rewards. Whe the heart is deceitful, we can have pure hearts by repenting. We must always ask for forgiveness if what we do to help the needy becomes a show-off instead of doing it as a sign of humility. We must always ask the Holy Spirit to help us so that we can move on after repentance. Guarding our hearts means we must not allow evil to take control of our thoughts because whatever we think, we do. It is important not to allow pride to take over our lives because it will make us not to hear what the Holy Spirit in the small still voice continues to tell us.

Caring for orphans and widows constitute pure religion because when you do that to them, they sincerely appreciate because they understand that they will not be able to reciprocate what you have done for them. They understand that the gesture is done out of love and kindness. Helping those who can't help you show humility because we know that they cannot give back. Giving to the widows and orphans is showing gratitude to God because it is He who gives us the blessings so that we can be a blessing to those who do not have. God expects us as His children to compassion and this is what humility is all about. Dorcas and Mother Teresa inspire us because they showed love by doing good for all people without expecting anything from them. They touched lives and gave people the dignity of life and as children of God we must emulate them and do not expect to be rewarded in this life as the greatest reward is awaiting those that are doing good for God's people. Being obedient to the Will of God is more than sacrifice.

Giving a cup of cold water and the Parable of the Sheep and Goats are common in that Jesus teaches us to care for people without actually looking at who they are but know that those who have the need must be taken good care of. We must not only assist people that we know because we know that Christ came on earth for all mankind and therefore we should not discriminate against anyone as God loves all of us irrespective of who we are. We must take care of every need that they have, those are, spiritual, physical and all the needs that the people have. We cannot go to hungry people and preach about the love of Christ for them and thereafter, leave them in the same state as we found them. Hence Christ in Matthew 25: 35-40, He says "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me water to drink, I needed clothing and you clothed me. The righteous asked, when did we do all that? Jesus answered, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters, you did for me."

Jesus wanted to teach His disciples that though they were with Him, but they have been called to serve the needs of the people by putting others first and not themselves. This reminded me when the great multitude spent time with Christ and the disciples wanted Jesus to send them away but He told His disciples to organize food for them. He actually taught them to have compassion and treat people with dignity and respect that they deserve. By washing the disciples feet, He taught them humility and that they were expected to do the menial work that was despised by people. The discipled were supposed to learn that they were not to focus on themselves and wanted to be honored but the focus was on the people who needde to be loved as treated as human being. The lesson was basically to say, we could all do menial work and that it was not for a certain category of people.

The difference between the world's pattern of leadership and Christ's pattern is that the former is all about power and wanting to be recognized and served while Christ's is all about humility and serving others rather than the self. The world uses authority to dominate people while Christ uses humility to win over people to the Kingdom of God. Servant leadership is about acknowledging that God has called us to serve others and not be selfish, full of pride and wanting to be reconized. It is about understanding that we are all made in the image of God and after His likeness and therefore no skin color, race, wealth or anything should be regarded as important when serving God's people. Not at all, You cannot be a "great" follower of Christ if you put yourself first above other people and if you serve yourself rather serving others. We must emulate Christ in all that we do because He showed us what humility is by taking the servant apparels when washing His disciples' feet and also allowing children to come to Him.

Pride makes God my opponent when I think that whatever I do and achieve is all because of my making. I need to know that it is God who gives us the ability to acquire all that we have. When I think high of myself and do not acknowledge God as the Giver of Life and everything that I am, then I do not give God the honor and praise that are due to Him. When I do my will and not God's Will, then pride takes over and I do not consider God in everything that I do especially when I become successful in the things that I want to achieve. Submission to God says I humble myself before Him and be obedient to doing His Will. I shun the wrong and do the right whether people are watching me or not because I know that God is Omnipresent and He watches over me. It also says that I listen to the directions of the Holy Spirit and though living in flesh, but I am directed, guided, led, advised and helped by the Holy Spirit and in that way, I subject myself under God's Authority. We wash our hands and purify our hearts by repenting. We know that we were born in sin but Christ paid the ransom for us. We must stop crucifying Christ over and over again but stop sinning and acknowledging the Lord as our Only God and no-one else. When we purify our hearts, we do not do our will but the Will of God and we become obedient to the directions that He leads us to. It requires us not to be double-minded but be focused on God. Our decision should be serving the One True God and our will integrated withour faith and love for God. Humbling helps us not to be selfish, proud, arrogant, double-minded and not to sin because these things make us to be far from God. We must have a contrite heart in order for God to lift us up.

Welcoming and associating with low-status people is a sign that as the disciples who Jesus Christ we do not discriminate against anyone but love, care, treat and have compassion just like Jesus Christ treated us before we accepted Him as our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ understands that we are sinners and as such welcomes us into His Kingdom so that we may know and understand what humility is as He displayed it when He was crucified for our sake. Before the eyes of God, we are all human beings and there is no status of anything. In our community, people who are economically poor live in shacks, squatter camps where there are no basics needs provided for them. There are no ablution facilities, water and life is unbearable because they have to fend for themselves to live. Those who come from other countries and treated as foreigners. Some people who are leaving with disabilities are also neglected and as such not treated like human beings and most of the time suffer abuse. Our church has Outreach programs and most of the time conducted through home cells so that we can reach a number of the disadvantaged people. There is also a Foundation that does not only focus on people in South Africa but reaches areas where there are national or regional disasters. As a family, we also do our part by not throwing people that is edible but package it nicely and give to those that beg for food. We also prepare food parcels and give to those standing in street corners looking for employment. When we go on the Outreaches, we do not leave our children and grandchildren behind because we want to teach them to take care of other people.

"Becoming like little children" require us to humble ourselves before God acknowledging that God is our Father and He knows all that we need. We solely depend on Him as our only sustainable Source of Life and Hope. In the presence of God we become vulnerable and be able to surrender all to Him. As children we become obedient to the voice of the Father and always do as instructed.

Pharisees love to be called "Rabbi" because they want recognition in the marketplaces and that people must hold them in high esteem. Instead of greeting people, they want people to greet them as a sign of saying that they are esteemed members in the synagogues. Titles and recognition exalt our pride because we want people to know who we are so that we are given higher places and be served instead of us serving people. People get offended if they are not called by their titles such that at times we forget their real names and focus on the title. That is what pride does. When people fail to recognize our work and accomplishment hurt because we want to be know for our achievements and be puffed up as being the most knowledgeable in whatever we do. In the late 1980s, I had an opportunity to go to Iowa State University as a young professional, I was amazed when lecturers there were called by their first names instead of the qualifications they held. Not in my country, people are called by the titles of the positions they hold and I always believe that it is all about pride to be known what they do. As human beings, our motivation is to exalt ourselves in order to puff up our ego so that we can be known. We always want to be put in high places and that people should know who we are and what is it that we do. We can humble ourselves by accepting who we are and not what we are. Titles do not make a person but humility does.

The Pharisee exalts himself by indicating all the things he does which accordingly to him are the most important in the eyes of God like fasting, tithing and he indicates that he is not sinner like all others. Believing that he is doing the correct things, he looks down upon others because he believes that following the law is an important thing to do instead of humbling himself. Him boasting is an indication that he thinks high of himself and looks down on others because they are not of the same class as him. He forgets that God is not a respecter of person and it is God who exalts those who humble themselves and humbles those who exalts themselves. God looks at the heart and the intention behind doing an act. The tax collector firstly moves to a far corner because he wants to have a personal talk with God and does not want to be heard as he presents his case before Him. He humbles himself by acknowledging that he is a sinner and shows repentance by beating his breast. Both deep repentance and humbling are necessary for salvation because if we repent and humble ourselves, God will surely forgive us. Repentance is believing in Jesus as the Lamb of God who shared His blood to have all our sins forgiven. Christ Jesus became a ransom for all and it is up to all of us to confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior of our lives.

Pride is the basic sin that drives all other sins because it makes you believe that you are the most important person who is in charge of life itself forgetting that God is the only One who gives us life and can take it without even consulting you. When Christ is not in the centre of your life, you will think that you have all that it takes to control your life and others. God, the Creator of Heaven and earth and all that is in it is the Sole Proprietor of my life. I acknowledge that before I was formed in my mother's womb, the Trinity sat and thought about me and God knows everything about me even things that I do not even know about myself. I truly believe that I am fearfully and wonderfully made and I am the apple of God's eye. I believe that repentance and humility are vital because we sin at times through our thoughts and speech and when we hurt others through our actions, we actually hurt God because we are all made in His image and after His likeness. It is therefore important to repent sincerely so for all the sins that we commit. We understand that Christ Jesus became a ransom for us and we must not crucify Him over and over again through our disobedience. We must acknowledge where we have sinned and humble ourselves because God is faithful to forgive us our sins if we truly repent.

Jesus humbles Himself by firstly giving up His Divine privileges and appearing in a form of a man. Secondly, He humbles Himself by being obedient to God and allow to die a criminal's death on the cross. Jesus humbled Himself so that as His disciples, we must learn from Him that though He is God, He does not think of equality with God as something to hold on to. He wants to teach us that the only way for us to be true disciples, we must be obedient to do the Will of God. The motivation of humbling Himself is that mankind should be saved from eternal damnation. He still wants to preserve mankind from dying in sin but rather that we have eternal life. The result of Jesus humbling himself is that "God elevated Him to the highest honor and gave Him the name that is above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee sould bow in heave and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

No, it does not. Being in a place of authority actually says that much as you are in "power", you must respect people and understand that we are all made in the image of God but you must exercise your authority well in correcting the wrong done. You must not overlook the wrong done but correct it in a way that will not disgrace the person you are correcting. Jesus rebukes James and John when they ask Him that one should sit at Jesus' right and one at His left in His glory. Jesus rebukes their ambition and also reprimand other disciples by their uneasiness when they heard the request made by the two brothers. Jesus has assured us that He has laid His life for us and whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life. This is more than we can ask for because He became ransom for us and took the fall and thought about us more than us thinking about ourselves.

I believe all of His ministering stands out to me because in each one of them, there is a lesson to be learnt. When Jesus rescued the woman who was caught in the act of committing adultery teaches us that we are all sinners and it is easy to bring the one just caught but how many commit sins in private and pretend to be holy in public. Again when Jesus is accused of dining with sinners by the Pharisees and He responds that the doctor does for the healthy but for the sick and therefore He has not come for the righteous for sinners. The one that shows the greatest degree of humbling is when He asked the Father to forgive those who were mocking and crucifying Him because they do not know what they are doing. This is most humbling when you are to forgive those doing evil to you but still remember that Jesus came for all mankind.

Jesus' refusal to seek men's praise is an example of humility because he understands that He is on earth to save people and do the Will of God and not to get their approval into what God has tasked Him to do. We understand that when we have finished that which God brought us on earth to do and He says "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful over a little; I shall set you over much, enter the joy of your Lord." This is the best praise because it comes from God and not man. This makes Jesus feel free to do the Will of God because He knows that the One who sent Him is faithful and deserves all the honor, glory and praise. Seeking approval from other can cripple our discipleship because we will always want them to praise us and when there is no praise coming from them, our spirits can be dampened and we think that which we are doing is not good. Our focus should not be in men but in God. He has called us for a time as this and as such, we must always enquire fron God and not men what is it that He wants us to do for His Kingdom. Man can deceive us but He who has called us will strengthen us even if we think we are sinking/failing.