Humble Myself - Doodle Prayer

I have been doing some doodle praying or coloring while I pray. Today I picked the central theme to be Humble Myself from James 4:10. I started by drawing the box in the center with the red ruffle boarder. I didn't know what my topic was going to be at that moment. I stopped and picked up one of the little booklet called The Anointing that Empowers the Word by Rev. Cal Pierce the founder of the Healing Rooms Ministry. Last week when I was there praying at the healing rooms I felt like I needed to go get some of his books because there were some puzzle pieces that I needed to find with in them. So I pick up that book and read the first pages. "God wants you to humble yourself before Him in order to receive the anointing in your life. You've go to humble yourself, or subject yourself to God. You cannot receive the anointing unless you first begin to walk in humility."  The reason for this is found in 1 Peter 5:5-6 is because God resists the proud.

So this is speaking to me because I have been seeking the Lord over the past week about the direction of my massage business. My gut feeling has been that something is off and I need to solve it before God will send me people. I've included another doodle drawing called My Path and on it I had put drawings and doodles of the many things I find myself doing or involved in. If you look at my picture you will notice the massage hands on the right side of the page almost don't fit. I've been seeking the Lord about what is it you want me to do with all these different things. Do I need to do some house cleaning and get rid of some of them, or is there a way to make it all work together. So I feel pretty clueless and I am just drawing and coloring before the Lord when I hear in my mind "I simply call you to be a light. Shine forth my love in everything you do." Well that takes some of the pressure off.

There is a part of me that is a bit resistant to business building. Because I truly believe that unless the Lord builds the house those who labor labor in vain. That does not mean that I am being inactive in the process but having walked with the Lord for about 35 years. I know when something is off and I wonder why I am feeling resistance. So back to the subject at hand. When I am in tracking mode I am very aware of the things I am led to read, or things that people say. I knew there were some keys in these books that I needed to find to help me on my journey.

So humility, I found myself thinking as I made bubble letters for the words Humble Myself.  Then I thought I wonder what Mother Teresa had to say on the subject. I mean if I was giving out humble buttons she would be on the top of my list. “Humility is the mother of all virtues; purity, charity and obedience. It is in being humble that our love becomes real, devoted and ardent. If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed you will not be discouraged. If they call you a saint you will not put yourself on a pedestal.”

So my next person I wanted to weigh in on the subject is one of my favorite thinkers of our time. CS Lewis. He says "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, It is thing of yourself less."
In another quote he says " To even get near (humility) even for a moment, is like a drink of cold water to a man in a desert. Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is a nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking of himself at all"

There are tons of verses in the Bible on the subject of humility. There are 15 verses for the word humility, 73 for humble. Humble Yourself there are 6 verses. So there is plenty of food for thought and one could cover this topic for quite a while to talk about them all.

The verse I selected is from Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

So I began thinking where am I falling short in showing humility. Ok my marriage - ouch Lord but you know I am always right - right? My husband who is a good and kind man, puts up with my all too often superior attitude. We often clash because he has one correct way of doing things where I have at least six, some better than other. Because I have more ideas I should win right? No humility would be to keep Philippians 2:3 in mind. "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves"

I went on to think about how I do better to focus on others, looked at areas where I have had some spiritual pride and thought about areas of my life that needed to be submitted to the Lord. We've all got our stuff and I have mine as well.

I found a quote from Augustine that I liked. "I you plan to build a tall house of virtues, you must first lay deep foundations of humility." I just kind of liked the image of a tall house that came to mind and had fun drawing it after examining myself.

My final thought was that I can be fully who God has created me to be. I can be good at many things and enjoy life. keeping in mind that I am the clay in the potters hands. He fashions me for his purposes.

So maybe you want to try doodle praying for yourself. You might put a name of God in the center or the name of someone who needs prayer. If you think of a bible verse write it down. Its really not about creating framable art its about focusing your thoughts so you can pray and hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to you as he leads your thoughts and ides. You don't have to be a great artist just someone who can draw shapes, lines and squiggles. You can color as you go or do your page of doodles and color it afterwards or not at all.  Maybe you are stressed out - put the word peace in the center and see where it takes you.