Humility

"Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life." - Proverbs 22:4
NLT

Humility is essential for establishing and maintaining a right relationship with God, as
well as keeping a true perception of who we are before God. The Merriam-Webster
Dictionary defines humility as a “freedom from pride or arrogance; the quality or state of
being humble.” Taking this a step further, we see that Biblical humility is a genuine
attitude, coming to God with a meek heart, an understanding of who God has created
us to be, and an understanding of our need for complete dependence on Him.
Humility says that God’s way is better than our own ways. James 4:6-10 show us that
God gives grace and honors those who are humble and submit themselves before God,
but resists those who are proud. Being humble means we have faith that God’s way is
the best way, rather than following our own ways and thoughts. Being humble is
important because it keeps us from becoming prideful, which can ultimately lead to our
destruction (Proverbs 14:12 & 16:18-19). We are best able to further God’s Kingdom
when we stay humble.

Humility is also the understanding of who we are before God. Jesus is our perfect
example of humility. He did not seek power or a position; He had no problem serving
others and did so with a joyful heart. Matthew 23:12 says, "whoever exalts himself will be
humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Romans 12:3 says we are not
to think more highly of ourselves as better than we are, but rather evaluate ourselves
measuring ourselves by the sound judgment, in accordance with the faith God has
distributed to us. Do you see that?! We are to evaluate ourselves by sound judgment!
Humility is to disregard a concern for a specific rank or position. It is literally seeing
ourselves the way God sees us; no better, no worse than someone else. This is the
really great thing about God’s grace - it doesn’t matter what we’ve done in the past, or
even today, that would qualify or unqualify us in the world’s eyes, God has created us
equally and wants to use us equally!