The old theologian Jonathan Edwards wrote, “Humility is the greatest and most essential thing in true religion.” All of God’s dealings with humanity from the beginning of time were to effect humility in their lives. Humility is God’s key to inner peace! You cannot obey without it! You cannot love without it! You cannot be who God made you to be without humility!
Lucifer, being created a special angel, allowed pride to arise in his heart. Pride was the root cause of the fall of Lucifer. The culminating war against God and his being cast out of Heaven was because of pride. God knows that if the devil can captivate our spirits and bend them toward pride, he has a great opportunity to devastate our lives. Everything that is good and wholesome and wonderful will be destroyed when pride enters the picture.
When pride enters a home, harmony between husband and wife is destroyed. Relationships between children and parents are destroyed. Sibling rivalry will be found in unhealthy proportions. Many homes are war zones simply because of pride.
Humility is not self-hatred or a lack of self-confidence. Rather, it is the ability to see oneself through God’s eyes. A humble person increasingly sees himself as he truly is, which lays the foundation for contentment and healthy self-esteem. In contrast, pride is spiritually blinding. In a demonic catch-22, pride causes us to chase our spiritual tails. We cannot see our pride because we are full of ourselves. Pride is a spiritual veil blinding us to the truth about ourselves.
Instead of contrition, pride leads us to self-righteousness; instead of recognizing the importance of God’s Word, self-righteousness cause one to despise it. Even when we Christians become deliberately disobedient because of pride, it keeps us from properly applying God’s truths to our personal lives and knocks us off balance. Ultimately, it leads us to a place where God truly needs to judge “those other folks”. – -We are so sure that we are so right that we need no personal judgement.
Since humility results in trembling at God’s Word, it brings us into real communion with God. It sensitizes us to His voice. It opens our ears to His instructions and deepens our gratitude. It leads us into greater dependence upon God because we know our desperate need for Him.
The proud do not know the depths of their sinfulness nor their need for God’s unlimited grace. The greater one’s humility, the more he will extract spiritual food. The growing humility will bring a foretaste of a deeper intimacy with God and those around us. There are endless examples of this in people we have read about who have given us themselves in humanitarian work.
As a pastor, one of my fundamental goals of discipleship is to help people grow in humility. When I simply want to make people happy, I make them unhealthy! Until we understand our need for change, which is an important step in humility, our self-esteem will flat-line!
To cultivate humility, we must first admit that we are proud, even if we cannot see obvious evidence of our arrogance. “Ask somebody!” is often the advice of those who do not know what to wear, but it is also the right question when we wish to grow in grace.
Everyone who sees the majesty of God will see himself with greater clarity. We must pray for spiritual illumination so we can see more of God in and through ourselves.
We need to immerse ourselves in God’s spiritual mirrors, which is God’s Word. When we contrast our “enlightenment” with God’s wisdom, our selfishness in light of God’s love, and our weaknesses in contrast to His strength, we will find a joy of self-confidence that we have aimlessly sought.
“No one has ever stood so tall as when he has bent his spirit to lift another’s!” Humility will help us become who God created us to be.
