Anawim

Then Job answered the Lord: “See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth."

✙ Job 40:3-4

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Anawim is a relatively common word in the Hebrew Bible that refers to the lowly, the poor, the least among us. I suppose to a lot of us, this may seem like an insult. But that's never what it implies in the scriptures, for in every case, it is used for those who are closest to God's heart. 

Jesus himself was poor, despised, and rejected, and taught his followers to treat the humble and needy as we would treat the Lord of the universe.

So when we read of characters throughout the Bible thinking of themselves as insignificant or the least of the apostles, we shouldn't read that as false modesty. They are proclaiming their trust in God in a way that the proud cannot even come close to.

May we be more like Job, more like Paul, more like Jesus himself, and let go of our own feelings of self-importance that we might place our faith in the One who loves the lowly and preserves the humble.

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For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.

✙ 1 Corinthians 15:9-10a

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Prayer after thinking about today's devotion:

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God, forbid that I should think too highly of myself, but strive to be more like your prophets, apostles, and Jesus himself.

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After your own thanksgivings & petitions, close with the Lord's Prayer.

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