That’s what humility has been called – “the knees of the soul.” Faith and humility not only go together; they ought not be separated from each other! Proverbs 3:34 says the Lord is scornful to the scorners, “but to the humble He gives favor.” We all wrestle, at least occasionally, with pride. And Christians must understand that we face few enemies so formidable. Here’s the reason. We can’t be full of ourselves and full of God at the same time. If the greatest sin is the corruption of the highest good, those who use God to promote themselves are in a lot of trouble! Pride must die in us for God to live more in us. It’s that crucial.
What is humility? It is a state of selfless submission to Almighty God (cf. Phil. 2:5-11). It is the fertile soil from which the Spirit’s fruit grows (cf. Gal. 5:22-23). It is a heart melted by God’s amazing goodness and grace (cf. Rom. 2:4, 7). It is an attitude that does not think less of self in the sense of being a loser, worthless or a nobody; it simply thinks of self less (cf. Phil. 2:1-4). Humility constantly and gloriously seeks the glory of God (cf. Prov. 25:27; 1 Cor. 10:31).
1 Peter 5:5 says, “Clothe yourselves, all of you with humility toward one another.” How well dressed and modest would we be if humility is the standard for dressing with success? One may be seemingly well dressed outwardly, but naked and shame-ridden spiritually when humility is absent. 1 Peter 5:5-7 contain four incentives for God’s people to ever sincerely desire to be people of humility:
(1). God opposes the proud (vs. 5).
(2). God gives grace to the humble (vs. 5).
(3). God uses His mighty hand to exalt the humble (vs. 6).
(4). God cares for the humble as they cast their cares upon Him (vs. 7).
Proverbs 22:4 says, “The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.” Jesus said, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11). Getting past image management and feeding our egos to humbling ourselves before God is a primary step to true wisdom and blessedness
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