“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4
Humility; it can be difficult, right? Well, have you ever been in a situation where you’ve felt that you have been humbled and realised how hard it is to truly accept it? It’s especially difficult if you believed you were right, right before being humbled. If you’ve experienced this, it must have been quite hard to own up and accept that you were wrong, right?
Well then, what is humility and why is it so important?
Humility is the practice of submission and obedience to God or when we put other peoples’ needs before our own. Being humble is also when you try to constantly listen, receive and respond with an open heart to God’s Word and commands. Humility takes a big part in our faith as without it, we would not be able to trust or fully submit ourselves to God’s wisdom. We would not have listened to God’s guidance either. Without humility, we may have compared ourselves to other people, thinking that we are better than them when in reality, we are all the same. We are all sinners.
Jesus, the humblest person who ever lived:
Jesus is above all of us. He was King of all kings and the everlasting God. Yet out of His great love, grace and humility, He sacrificed Himself and died on the cross to save us from our sins. Jesus Christ chose to come down to earth knowing that He would experience great embarrassment and excruciating pain for us, sinners. Even before Jesus died on the cross, He was the only one who was perfectly humble. Another example of Jesus’ humility was when He washed the disciples’ feet. From Jesus’ actions, we can learn that true greatness lies in loving service, not in dominion. While we cannot be perfectly humble like Jesus, we can still aim to be humble like Him, and put our wants after God’s and the needs of everyone else. As Jesus has shown His humility to us, we must be humble towards others too.
Why must we be humble?
- Humility increases our gratitude:
We can only realise God’s great love when we have a humble heart. Whenever we notice the extent of God’s love for us and realise that He is in control of our whole lives, we become filled with gratitude. Thankfulness then fills inside us and helps us to obey the commands of God humbly and genuinely.
- Humility allows us to avoid the negative effects of pride:
In Psalm 10:4, it says ‘In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.’
Pride, the feeling of deep satisfaction from your own achievements or admiration towards yourself, is what separates us from God, leaving an increasing gap between us and God. Being humble will lead us away from the destruction of evil and the temptations of this world.
- Humility gives you an aspiration to be kind
As being humble means putting others before yourself, we cannot resist but to be kind to others. We are overfilled with kindness and so kindness spills out in our treatment of others – it’s just like the common cold, but involving a lot more joy.
We can apply this to our lives practically by making sure to thank God every time we pray or have someone hold you accountable. For example, when you achieve something like becoming top of the class, you could thank God. Instead of thinking you are higher than everyone else and responding negatively towards others due to that thought. Although it is difficult, we must not take pride or be full of ourselves. Our priorities must always be set to God first, as we learn to know who he is and who we are more and more.
“The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honour and life.” Proverbs 22:4
