True humility is a rare commodity in our world today! Yet we are told in scripture, if we humble ourselves before the Lord that He will lift us up and make our lives significant! We are also told that God gives grace to the humble, but must resist the proud. When the Holy Spirit begins to teach us how detrimental pride is to our spiritual walk and growth; the desire to “humble ourselves” before the Lord, and recognize our continuous and constant need for His grace, mercy, and help in all areas of our lives will become a vital and essential stepping stone in finding our significance and power through Christ.
A lack of humility in our lives can be manifested in two completely opposite behaviors. We usually think of someone who lacks humility as full of conceit, haughty, egotistical, overconfident, and having a sense of self-importance, while being condescending towards others -not requiring or needing God’s help-or much of it anyway!
But that same lack of humility can also produce a state of pride that says: I can’t do this or that. I’m inferior, I’m dumb,. I’m inadequate, I’m a coward, I can’t do anything. This variety of pride is equivalent to the superior pride, because both focus on the ability of self, and both leave God and His healing Truth, power and ability out of the equation. The self-important pride says that we are self-sufficient in and of ourselves; the self-defeated pride says that we can’t and we are defeated.
Father God calls us to surrender all forms of pride to Him. Stand up to the Devil and resist the temptation to take life in your own hands apart from God, and the enemy will turn and run away from you. Move your heart closer and closer to God, and he will come closer to you. Make sure you humble yourself and receive God’s forgiveness and cleansing! Be willing to be made low and humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you!
Our loving Lord declares, “Humble Yourself” before Me. He is calling us to recognize, acknowledge, and accept our neediness and our continual need of Him to be involved in all our choices, and in every area of our lives. As we choose to humble ourselves before God, the Spirit will motivate and teach us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and we are self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency. We must remember not to leave the Lord, and take things in our own hands. We want our focus to be on Lord Yahweh, the One who is able to give us the grace we need to lift us up, and make our lives significant. Then through His love, power, and grace we will be transformed into who we were created to be.
“Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant]” (James4:10).