James 4:6 declares that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Humility is an ingredient often lacking today within the body of Christ. We are taught how to win well and conquer, but not so much on how to yeild our egos to God. Humility begins when you understand that you're not self-sufficient enough to handle spiritual things. It doesn't mean you have the spirit of a doormat and get walked all over. It doesn't mean that you allow yourself to be fodder for idol gossip. Being humble means that you realize you have certain limitations that can only be filled by God. You can't save yourself from your sins or from you past, but you willingly surrender your life to God because you understand that He can do what needs to done with your life.
Jewish tradition teaches that humility is among the greatest of the virtues, and its opposite, pride, is among the worst of the vices. Greatness and humility, in the Jewish tradition, are not incompatible. They complement one another. For a man to be humble he does not have to be someone who "has plenty to be humble about." In fact, the greater the man the more humble he is expected to be and is likely to be. The Torah, say the rabbis are compared to water for just as water only runs downhill, never uphill, the Word of God can only be heard in a humble heart.
The Jewish leaders also were fully aware that any personal attempt to attain humility for the wrong reason was self-defeating and that pride can masquerade as humility. Vanity and self glorification are easily recognized for what they are, but mock modesty is less easy to detect. It is not unusual even today for a man to take pride in his humility or to indulge in the more subtle form of self deception in which he prides himself that he is not a victim of false modesty.
Humility is not just the mere absence of pride. It consists not so much in thinking little of one's self as in not thinking of one's self at all. As a retired pastor, I have seen many in ministry brag about statistics that were not true or mislead others into thinking they were someone special because they were the loudest voice in the room. Why preach holiness is the way and then fail to teach that humility is the key to being obedient to God? It's not always the one that crows the loudest or demands the most attention in a crowd, but the person who truly understands that without humility they cannot touch God.
So let our prayer as the church be, "God take off the shackles of pride and fill me with a spirit of humility." It might not stroke your ego, but it will certainly bring you into the presence of God.
The Jewish leaders also were fully aware that any personal attempt to attain humility for the wrong reason was self-defeating and that pride can masquerade as humility. Vanity and self glorification are easily recognized for what they are, but mock modesty is less easy to detect. It is not unusual even today for a man to take pride in his humility or to indulge in the more subtle form of self deception in which he prides himself that he is not a victim of false modesty.
Humility is not just the mere absence of pride. It consists not so much in thinking little of one's self as in not thinking of one's self at all. As a retired pastor, I have seen many in ministry brag about statistics that were not true or mislead others into thinking they were someone special because they were the loudest voice in the room. Why preach holiness is the way and then fail to teach that humility is the key to being obedient to God? It's not always the one that crows the loudest or demands the most attention in a crowd, but the person who truly understands that without humility they cannot touch God.
So let our prayer as the church be, "God take off the shackles of pride and fill me with a spirit of humility." It might not stroke your ego, but it will certainly bring you into the presence of God.
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