Skip to main content

True Humility

Humility.  The word is lovely, but it tends to bring up images that falsify true humility.  Humility doesn't mean dressing plain or ugly, being a doormat, letting others boss you around or feeling worthless.  Humilty is much more than that.  It's basis is thinking rightly about who you are in relation to God.  It is right, realistic thinking. 
 It is knowing
  • your real strengths
  • your true weaknesses
  • your genuine talents
  • your real worth
Humility is a balance between the opposing and extreme ends of boastful pride and false humility.  When our eyes are on ourselves and whether we think we are better or worse than others, it is pride.  When our eyes are on God, we can't help but be humble.  Here are a few points from a recent Sunday School lesson which brought out some great points about humility.
1.  A humble person has the right perspective about who they are in relation to God.  God is God - we are not.
2.  A humble person directs people's attention to God.  They know it is not about 'me', but what God has given to me and how His grace is what makes us what we are.
3.  A humble person is not self-focused but God-focused.  You cannot 'achieve humility'.  The more you work on it and focus on it, the more you focus on yourself.  When we focus on God, He increases and our selfishness decreases.  We think more about Him and less about ourselves.
Humility brings about grace - grace to receive and grace to give.  It brings about confidence in the fact that God made us unique and has gifted and equipped us to be ourselves.  It brings about kindness and compassion when we turn our focus from ourselves to others we are more aware of needs and ways we can help meet the needs of others. The Golden Rule, spoken by Jesus, is possibly the best known quote from the Bible, and contains a lot of wisdom in one short sentence. If we wish to be loved, we must first give love. If we wish to be respected, we must respect all persons, even those we despise. If we wish to be fulfilled in our lives, we must share generously with others.
By humility we acknowledge that God created us for his purposes and not for our self-glorification. By humility we acknowledge the dignity of all God's people. By humility we cool the angry passions of others. By humility we can turn enemies into friends.
A humble demeanor is not a denial of our worth as individuals. Rather, it is the tool that allows us, insofar as possible, to be on good terms with all persons.

Humility and the fear of the LORD bring wealth and honor and life. (NIV, Proverbs 22:4)
"But the greatest among you shall be your servant. "And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. (NAS, Matthew 23:11-12)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for sharing your commment. It is a joy and blessing to hear from you and your words are appreciated.

Popular posts from this blog

Sometimes We Score, Sometimes We Block

Our family is in the midst of little league soccer season. My youngest son is playing and his enthusiasm is contagious. He is pretty good at the sport, but what makes it so great is that he loves it! He counts the days until the next game or practice. He loves his coach and teammates. He has moved up an age level this year and the players are working more like team, passing to each other and watching out for each other during play. During the last game, my son scored two goals, they were the only goals of the game. In today's game the team scored eight goals. My son came up afterwards to me and said, "I didn't score today, but I blocked". What a powerful truth those words can hold. In life, sometimes we score, sometimes we block. Sometimes we do great things, we excel, we achieve, we meet our goal - we score! There are also times we see the needs of others, sometimes they are sad or hurting, we block their hits. We look out for them so they can score. We...
17 comments
Read more

WFW – Write It On My Heart

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel       after that time, declares the Lord.    I will put My laws in their minds       and write them on their hearts.    I will be their God,       and they will be My people.  Hebrews 8:10 On a recent field trip to a museum featuring the days gone by, we sat in an old schoolroom as the teacher introduced us to the quill pen and bottle of ink.  She cautioned us to use extreme caution using the ink and told us that if it got on our skin or clothes, it would not come off. This reminded me of this beautiful promise from Hebrews.  God told His people he would put His law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  This is a covenant which cannot be broken.  He loves us and wants us to know Him through His Word.  As we read more and more of His Word, it becomes w...
12 comments
Read more

Construction, Challenges, Chaos

 Who knew something simple could erupt into something chaotic so quickly? A broken file cabinet forced us to purchase a new one. We found one online, ordered it and it arrived quickly with a do it yourself assembly book, complete with 24 part packages and 18 steps of instructions!  As we unpacked the items and compared with the instruction book, we realized a part was missing. Customer service was called, a replacement part was quickly received. Except, the screws did not fit into the holes on the replacement part. We tried again, received another part, same issue.  Meanwhile, the 24 packages of parts are spread out on my living room floor, customer service does not understand my issue, they asked for photos which were sent and now we are again, waiting for a part.  It seems every project faces the inevitable delay. My work place is undergoing a floor remodel. Upheaval, dust, packing, lots of inconvenience and depending on the work crew's schedule dictate the next fe...
Post a Comment
Read more