Advent is a time to ponder the humility of Christ and God’s plan to remake us in his likeness. To obey this call from the heart, we must first adopt the mindset of Christ.  

When Jesus left heaven to come to earth, he refused to consider his personal glory “a thing to be grasped” (Phil. 2:6). The word grasp means to hold to something so tightly that you could never let it go. The Son of God humbled himself by being born into our broken world, because he considered our need of salvation greater than his right to display his glory. Jesus clothed his magnificent glory within the humility of an infant. Thirty-three years later, he subjected himself to the humiliation of public torture by “becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (v. 8). 

Humility delayed his future glory, but it will be recognized one day, when he comes a second time and “every knee [shall] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (vv. 10–11). But you need not wait to humble yourself and become more like Jesus. You can begin by worshipping your humble Savior even now. 

Consider the Spirit’s work of remaking you in the image of the humble Christ. What is one specific way you can follow his example by putting someone else’s needs above your own this advent season?

—Paul Tautges, author, Remade