Humility is a quality I aspire to have as it is a big deal to God. In Micah 6:8, God tells us that true religion is "to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God."
But how do I achieve this? By Believing in God and trusting His better plan that it's not about me. Following His way over my natural inclinations.
God values humility. We hear consistently in the Bible how "God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.” (James 4:6)
But who are the humble? Are they people who let others go first in line or don't like the attention on themselves?
Spiritual humility is an attitude of modesty that comes from understanding our place in the larger order of things. It is a modest or low view of one's importance. At first glance, humility might seem like a sign of weakness rather than what it is, a sign of strength.
We are almost finished reading the Old Testament in our Gather Bible Study, and there has been a lot of destruction and restoration. Do you want to know the one trait that all the books claim as the reason for this destruction? Pride. And the reason for restoration? Humility and trust.
The pride that God speaks of in the Bible is the kind that thinks the world revolves around us. This kind of pride makes us our own gods, thinking life is about our successes and pleasures and thus disregarding the needs and feelings of others. This kind of pride leads to a self-centered life and one that moves away from God's purposes. We may believe in God, but it is more about how we can use Him to get what we want. We begin to believe less and less in His power as we make it more about ourselves. Pride ultimately turns us away from God.
The pride of self-sufficiency is the one I struggle with most. It seems small, seemingly benign at first— simply living my life and trusting in my abilities to get things done. However, this ultimately can lead away from trusting God when He does not serve our purposes.
Humility, on the other hand, restores a right relationship with God. It is the realization that God is Sovereign. He knows what is best. It is His purposes that prevail.
Humility is an awareness of our smallness and God's bigness. It believes God knows best, not us. It is a dependency on God, not self-sufficiency. It is a relationship where He leads, and we follow.
I love the definition the teacher ended our Gather Bible Study with, so I will do the same — "Humility is the knowledge that It is Not My Show."
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