Pursuing Humility

Pride is a slippery thing. It’s the primary source of all our troubles in this life and is at the heart of Satan’s agenda. After all, it’s why he got booted from heaven in the first place. It causes us to compete when we should cooperate, talk about ourselves when we should be listening to others, seek independence when dependence is what we need, and compare ourselves to others when we should be comparing ourselves to Christ.

I’ve been personally convicted about this for some time now. I can see times in my life when I have been so blinded by my own perceived needs that I practically ignored other important people in my life. I’m learning that my insecurity is merely the outward manifestation of a deeper problem. The problem is pride. But, then, isn’t that ALWAYS the problem?

It’s the thought of Jesus’ incarnation that so humbles me. The very idea that God would come in “likeness of man” is mind blowing. Then we killed him. We killed God. Stuck Him on a cross and killed Him. That He allowed us to touch even a hair on his head in violence so that we could exchange our sin for His righteousness takes the humility of Christ to an incomprehensible extreme.

I think this helps us understand why God says such strong things about pride in the Bible. Consider these, for example:

• Prov. 6:16-17 and Prov. 8:13
• Prov. 16:5 and Prov. 16:18
• James 4:6 and I Peter 5:5

It’s only through Jesus’ example and then His enablement that we can grow in humility. We can’t even see our pride (because we are prideful) lest He show it to us. Since Jesus is the source of humility, it’s only through Him that we can find it.

In the end, we are all in process. No one can claim humility. All we can say is that we are pursuing it. But wait! Just admitting that requires humility, doesn’t it?

Amena Brown – “You”

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