Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Humility and pride do not mix.

While I lay awake last night, I was thinking, "What does it mean to humble myself before God?" Daniel 10:12 reads,

Then he said, "Don't be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven." (NLT)

A definition of humbling myself before God is committing myself to following/submitting myself to His way. What helps me in understanding humility is comparing it to the opposite, namely, pride. Pride - I follow my way. My ideas replace God's ideas; my thinking replaces God's thinking; my philosophy replaces God's Word. The result is death. Humbling myself before God results in life. The following truths from God's Word encourage humility: (NLT)

Isa 57:15, "I restore the crushed spirit of the humble."

Ps 69:32, "The humble will see their God at work and be glad."

Ps 138:6, "Though the LORD is great, he cares for the humble."

Jesus said: Matt 11:29, "Let me teach you, because I am humble and
gentle."

Luke 14:11, "...those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those
who humble themselves will be exalted."

1 Peter 5:5b, "...God opposes the proud but favors the humble."

Humility is necessary in order to walk with God and enjoy fellowship with Him.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Honoured to be the first to comment. Well said, Billdad,I'm proud of you - that's okay isn't it? Maybe I should say I'm humbly proud of you... Anyway, pride is such a killer isn't it? Just when you think you have the humility thing going on, wham, pride has sneaked up and that flesh thing has invaded again...
Brent

Albert Martens said...

Humility and pride often is hard to figure out. We need self esteem, we are worth much in the eyes of the Lord Jesus. We are not defeated, rather rejoicing in the Lord becasue he made us. So it is not a selfish pride, but we humble ourselves before the Lord God. Often I do not understand His great Love either. I am proud of Jesus, humble myself before Him becasue of His great Love. "And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is." Eph. 3: 18
Albert

Anonymous said...

Thanks for these clarifying thoughts. Humility is an action, a choice, not just a feeling or a subjective state of mind. Feelings are not very manageable and a state of mind too subjective for me to know if I am actually being obedient to the command. But doing things God's way and thinking His thoughts, while never perfect in this life, are more objective and do-able in the power of the Spirit.

PickleJarAdventures said...

Daniel 10:12 sparked something for me that I have been mulling over for some time - humility and teachability go hand-in-hand. Daniel's request for understanding and humility was heard by God. The more I understand who God is, the more I realize who I am and I'm humbled by that. Needless to say, I agree with Uncle Brent in that as soon as I think I've got this humility thing cased, I've just fallen for pride again!