This past week I talked about humility in my sermon. It’s a word that continues to come up in conversation a lot these days. And it just “happened” to be the topic of a weekly email devotion I received this week from a pastor’s website I subscribe to.
The devotional started off with a phrase I’ve heard before—Be humble or you’ll stumble. It comes from Proverbs 16:18 which says: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Often times the more we grow in knowledge and understanding of something the more prideful we become. We think we know more and thus become more powerful or prestigious, I guess.
But the reality is, the more we grow in wisdom and knowledge, the more humble we should become. Truly wise people are people that remain humble. And that’s because they realize that humility and teachability go hand in hand.
As we grow in our knowledge and understanding of the Lord, it shouldn’t make us think we’re better than those who don’t have our knowledge and understanding. Instead, it should help us to realize how much more we have to learn and grow as we look to our perfect Savior and see the example He set for us.
Humility begins by realizing that we’re not God and we never will be. It’s realizing that we are NOTHING without Him. If we don’t realize this truth, then we will never be able to be the leaders God has called us to be. Our maturity isn’t based on WHAT we know, it’s based on WHO we know (and how well we know Him).
James 4:6 tells us, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” God wants to show us grace, He wants to bless us and use us for His glory. And it’s our humility that allows Him to do this.
As we grow in and through Him, we must remain humble and teachable. Because whether we realize it or not, we still have so much to learn. Lord, help us to be humble, teachable, life-long learners!
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