3 Signs God Is Telling You to Be Humble So He Can Bless You

1 Peter 5:5-7

Here are 3 signs God is telling you to remain humble so he can bless you in the future.

1. When You Need to Wait for the Proper Time to Be Blessed, God Is Telling You to Remain Humble

One possible reason you have not received that blessing you desire is simply because God isn’t planning on giving it to you. Humility cannot be used like a crowbar. We can’t force our way into a blessing God has locked off from us. In humility, we need to trust that God knows best and will bless us with something even better than the one thing he is choosing not to give us.

With that said, another possibility is not that God is saying “no” but rather “wait.” There is always a variable of timing when it comes to God’s blessings. Maybe that future spouse you desire is going through a healing season themselves and they are not ready to meet you. Or maybe you have some more maturing to do before you can thrive in marriage. Or maybe God knows his purpose for you now will be best fulfilled through your singleness, but once this season is over he will then give you a marriage because it will serve his purposes then.

Either way, humility brings blessings because it causes us to wait for God’s proper timing rather than rushing and pushing and inadvertently missing good because of our impatience and pride. 1 Peter 5:5-7 explains:

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

God has a “proper time” for exalting you. Remember, “he cares for you.” Therefore, pray Psalm 69:13 over your life, “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.”

2. If There Is Something Currently Hindering You from Being Blessed, God Will Tell You to Be Humble Because Humility Helps You Change What Needs to Be Changed

James 4:2 states, “You do not have, because you do not ask.” James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” James 1:25 explains, “But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

The point is, there are things that we can do or not do that will affect if God does or does not bless us. We never deserve anything good. Everything good comes from God and is by grace (James 1:16-18). But when we are actively rebelling or actively being passive, God will often withhold a blessing in order to not further encourage our disobedience. In love, God waits for us to obey so his blessings can actually be a blessing to us and not a curse because of our misuse of the blessing.

This is why humility is so important if you desire a blessing from God. Pride causes you to blame God and ignore your own issues. God is never the problem. As Proverbs 19:3 teaches us, “When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.” We are sometimes the barrier to God’s blessings. God is never the barrier to God’s blessings.

It takes humility to accept this. It takes humility to accept that there are things outside of your control but the only thing you can control is yourself, so there is no point to complain about those things you can’t do anything about. Humility will help you accept what you can’t change and focus on what you can change by God’s grace working through you.

Humility helps you build the character needed to handle blessings. As James 1:2-4 explains, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

3. God Will Always Lead You to Be Humble Because Humility Leads You Into God’s Presence Through Grace Which Is the Blessing God Desires to Give Most of All

Psalm 138:6 (NLT) states, “Though the LORD is great, he cares for the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud.” Isaiah 57:15 proclaims:

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

God may or may not give you that spouse you desire, that promotion you want, or that healing your body longs for. But according to the promises in Scripture, the Lord will always be near to those who humble themselves before him. Closeness with God is the need our hearts crave the most.

Be humble, therefore, that God might bless you with his presence. As the Lord said in Isaiah 66:2 (NIV), “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.”