The Quest for Humility

Facebook has made all the world self-promoters, Twitter has made every one fancy themselves a quick-quipping pun king, and Youtube has made everyone think they should be a star.  We live in a world that spreads self-esteem and expects self-exaltation, making the truly humble heart is a rarity.  But God demands something more, indicating that there is ruin for those who would exalt themselves in haughtiness and pride.

This is a hard but necessary teaching.  Many of us would rather be noticed and heralded, but God asks for something else altogether.  Throughout the book of Proverbs, humility is contrasted to pride just as wisdom is contrasted to foolishness and as godliness is contrasted with sin (Pro. 3:34; 11:2; 15:31, 33; 16:18-19; 18:12; 21:4; 26:12; 29:23; 30:32).  This should be enough in itself for us to know that God demands us to be humble so as to receive His favor and His blessings.

But before we should think that only the Old Testament was concerned with humility, we should be reminded of Jesus very own words: "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matt. 23:12; cf. Luke 14:7-11 & 18:9-14 )."  We should take Jesus' words with seriousness and sobriety and it should, ultimately, convict us on to humility.

Clearly, humility is a big deal.  However, as mentioned above, it goes against our well-ingrained, western tendencies.  Accomplishing the task of humility is a holistic, full-person endeavor.  To be sure, the quest for humility is a matter of identity.  If we are to be found solely and securely in Christ, then there is simply no room for pride or haughty self-exaltation because we will be looking at our own worth in the light of the Holy Lord.  Let us then look to God to be our identity and our only boast!