Humility & Silence & Holiness - Lessons from the Blessed Virgin Mary, Gideon, and the Book of James
- godmanifesto
- Apr 6
- 6 min read
“My brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers. As you know, we teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others.
All of us often make mistakes. But if a person never makes a mistake in what he says, he is perfect and is also able to control his whole being.
We put a bit into the mouth of a horse to make it obey us, and we are able to make it go where we want.
Or think of a ship: big as it is and driven by such strong winds, it can be steered by a very small rudder, and it goes wherever the pilot wants it to go.
So it is with the tongue: small as it is, it can boast about great things. Just think how large a forest can be set on fire by a tiny flame!
And the tongue is like a fire. It is a world of wrong, occupying its place in our bodies and spreading evil through our whole being. It sets on fire the entire course of our existence with the fire that comes to it from hell itself.
Human beings can tame and have tamed all other creatures — wild animals and birds, reptiles and fish. But no one has ever been able to tame the tongue.
It is evil and uncontrollable, full of deadly poison. We use it to give thanks to our Lord and Father and also to curse other people, who are created in the likeness of God.
Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, this should not happen!
No spring of water 💦 pours out sweet water and bitter water from the same opening. A fig tree, my brothers and sisters, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water.”
James 3:1-12 GNBDK
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Often, life has a way of putting us around as my Pastor says, “Sand paper people.”
People who are irritating, run their mouths, or just a disaster to be around.
Bosses, family, coworkers, classmates, professors, the list goes on and on.
It’s tough for sure. Dealing with toxic and negative energy. Energy is contagious.
I am not going to lie.
I am guilty of the sins James listed above. I’ve cursed these people behind closed doors, calling them idiots, cursing them out, then blessing my lunch and dinner afterwards. That! My friends, is a duplicite life and an ungodly example.
There is a lot going on here. I try my best but fail a lot, in this fallen world.
You know, I always have that expectation that because people at Church are friendly, my family members and workplace and school are going to be the same way.
That is far from the case.
Whoever is reading this, maybe you are dealing with the same situation as I am. Family members who gossip and talk bad about you, family members who want you to fail, or just people who are in your life with negative energy.
There comes a point in time where you need to leave these people or be consumed by their darkness.
God had to separate Joseph and Daniel because they were very special people. It is a tough decision, leaving everything you knew behind. But have faith in God, and as King David wrote, “Do not despair! Trust in Him, trust in Him!”
I could go on about a study on this, I believe I watched this somewhere. 1 negative person (slacker, bad attitude, bum, Jew, Devil Worshipper, Muslim) can greatly reduce the productivity of 4 positive people on a team. It tanks the productivity of a whole team’s output by 30-40%. It’s called the Bad Apple Effect, a study from 2006. Basically, if you hang out with losers and downers and negative people, guess what, you’re going to be just like them too.
You want to be a duck, go hang out with ducks 🦆
Me, I’m going to fly with the Eagles because that’s where the Eagles go 🦅
Right now, I am training my mind to ignore the negatives of family, friends, or even strangers in general. Yes, that includes people in traffic. People who I will work with and even customers. Just protect my energy, mood, and not let what they do or say affect me.
If the energy is totally bad, time to pray 3 Hail Mary’s and a St Michael prayer. Keep yours and my energy and aura strong 🔥 💪 Stick close to Jesus.
It’s easy to be Christlike when everything is going good, but when the trials and pressure comes, that’s when to Shine, and when to Show Christ to others.
Super tough right? I know I failed in those situations all the time.
Now, Keep cursing to a zero. Keep complaining in your head and on your tongue to a zero. Your entire mood will change. I guaranteed it. One of the best life advice I have ever read, applied, and continue to live out to this day!
What you focus on will expand.
So focus on the good things. In yourself, in other people, Benjamin. You can say 3 good things about yourself, I’m sure you can find 3 good things in god awful people too. This will train your mind to overlook the elephant in the room, and basically keep you sane. Not everyone is perfect and you can’t pick at one person’s flaw when you have plenty of flaws yourself.
Find 3 good things about your Father & Mother & People you hate.
Write it out & be genuine about it.
Let the hate dissolve over time. In James 4, he warned us that our desires for pleasure and worldliness are causing us to fall into sin, to cause divisiveness and drama and toxicity at homes and even the workplace.
An old Grandma saying, I call it one of the best Proverbs of all time, “If you have nothing good to say, don’t say it at all!”
There are 2 examples in the Bible that we can follow and emulate. The Farmer Gideon, who God exalted to become a Fierce Warrior, and a Woman everyone overlooks, The Blessed Virgin Mary.
What are the key traits we can learn from them?
Extreme Humility. Fasting. Prayer warriors. Silent. Hard workers.
Hears God, listens, and does what He asks them to do.
Gideon’s story is crazy, just like the Blessed Virgin Mary’s. If you read and pray about it, it’s crazy how God always chooses the most unlikely people to be heroes of a story. Me personally? I think humility and hearing God and doing what He asked us to do is one of the most important things He looks at.
He looks at the Heart. He looks at the Heart.
Man looks at the outside and the superficial externals, God looks at within. He looks at our character.
We must guard against the seeds of Pride or be corrupted by it, just like Lucifer. Pride and wanting to be served is a dangerous spot to be in. It can tear the closest brotherhoods up and in this day and age, it may never ever be the same.
As we’ve seen, pride, a loud mouth, anger, lust, and a desire of worldliness leads to great sins and evil in this world.
Tearing marriages, families, cities & nations apart because of the viciousness of gossip and harsh language. Wars too, especially. Belief leads to words which lead to actions, which may lead to grave sins.
So Moral of the Story? Shhhh, silence your mouths, walk away, and stay far away from sinners and protect your energy. Don’t focus on the negatives or problems of this world. Focus on the positives and the solutions 💯
Pray, pray, pray!
Rebuke the Devil and rebuke the Devil in others. Most importantly, and I mean most importantly, yourself! In the MIGHTY NAME OF JESUS, rebuke the Devil in yourself!
Fast 1-3 times a week to keep your pride & lust in check. Live homeless some days to keep your pride in check. Pull your weight and help around the house and pay bills. Don’t be a burden to others.
Forgive others, even if it still hurts.
Confess your sins, repent, and leave it all up to God.
Finally, Michaelangelo Flying Cars will have to protect their assets by excluding unbelievers from our team. We will unequivocally not compromise on this important principle. This is based off Biblical scripture and warnings from God. What partnership does righteousness have with darkness? The Devil and Jesus?
Absolutely none. It’s almost like mixing doubt & faith, two words totally opposed to each other.
You see what happened to America because they decided to allow unbelievers to live here! It does not get any clearer than that.
“Do not try to work together as equals with unbelievers, for it cannot be done. How can right and wrong be partners? How can light and darkness live together? How can Christ and the Devil agree? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? How can God's temple come to terms with pagan idols? For we are the temple of the living God! As God himself has said: “I will make my home with my people and live among them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” And so the Lord says, “You must leave them and separate yourselves from them. Have nothing to do with what is unclean, and I will accept you. I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.””
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
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