Humble is the opposite of proud.
Pride is the attitude of a self-sufficient person.
However, we often fail to apply the concept of being humble in our own life.
Self-exaltation. You know what that is, don’t you?
It is pride. It is thinking that you are above others.
Such self-exaltation, such pride, such considering oneself as high and mighty is a dangerous thing.
God not only allows us to suffer, he also allows us to fail and fall. Why?
In order to humble us, so that we do not go the way of Satan, whose pride led to his eternal judgment - hell.
He allows us to experience shame and personal failure, so that we grow in our appreciation of God’s grace through Christ; so that we learn to glorify Jesus even more.
And God sometimes allows us to fall and fail so that he can exalt us later, and do even more with us than before.
Pride goes before a fall, but humility comes before honor.
-Proverbs 18:12
Prideful eyes are one of seven abominations that God hates (Proverbs 6).
God calls pride an abomination because it so easily separates us from him for eternity.
It is a dangerous evil.
Both James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 quote Proverbs 29:3-4, which says,
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the to humble."
But what is the pride that God condemns?
Pride is thinking you are more important than others, better than others,
or above others because of your name, your accomplishments, your gifts, your looks, your knowledge, or your wealth.
There are many symptoms of a prideful heart.
One is the way a prideful person reacts to criticism.
The prideful person becomes deeply offended by criticism,
and takes a “who are you to criticize me” attitude.
You know you are prideful when you become offended when people don’t give you the attention, respect, or honor you think you deserve.
“Don’t they know who I am” is a prideful heart speaking.
But a word of warning. Remember pride is an attitude of the heart.
You can’t judge whether someone is prideful by the expression on their face or even their manner.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged;
and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned;
pardon, and you will be pardoned.
-Luke 6:37
But you say, “What is so harmful about a little bragging.” But the heart of pride is not bragging. Pride leads to two great evils.
One is self-righteousness. The other is idolatry.
We humble ourselves when we think little of our own gifts and highly of others.
When we rejoice, rather than pout, when someone else is exalted and we are not.
When it is not about me and my reputation but Christ and his.
Whatever you are that is good is also by the grace of God -- not by your virtue. You did not create yourself.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves;
but our sufficiency is of God;
- 2 Co:5
A humble person will recognize that he knows little but can learn much more.
-but not by turning his thoughts into inferiority nor having low self-esteem.
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves,
and pray and seek My face,
and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven,
and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
- 2 CHRONICLES 7:14
A humble person will pray a lot and follow God's instructions, instead of leaning to their own understanding.
And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all,
able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition,
if God perhaps will grant them repentance,
so that they may know the truth.
-2 TIMOTHY 2:24-2
It is because of love, not hatred, that God humbles us.
It is pleasing God that we do not fall into pride,
so that we learn to always depend on his grace,
and so that we might be even more useful to him.
