"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.Rather, in humbly value others above yourselves."
Philippians 2:3
Humility:
First lets look at some well know humble people. One that comes to mind is Cinderella, a sweet young servant girl that in the end won the prince. Then there is George Bailey from, "It's a Wonderful Life" Everyone loves him. In "Chariots of Fire" there was Eric Linddell, a missionary turned Olympian who earns respected by honoring God above his medals. It is the humble, unselfish people, who endear themselves to us both in fiction and real life.
The bible speaks over and over about humility, being a humble person and how God honors that.
So how do we find the path to true humility? Humility is found by gaining a right perspective. Humility is a natural result of having an accurate view of who God is and who we are in relation to Him. You can and should still have good self-worth, esteem and personal value with humility. Right thinking about yourself is realistic thinking - a big picture of your strengths, weaknesses, talents, negative habits, and real worth.
Thinking your more wonderful that you are is pride, and thinking you are worse than you are is false humility. It's all self - focused. Humility is balanced in the middle with a right view of who you are and who you are not and who God is. When your eyes are on God you can't help but be humble.
Of all the character traits we will work on, humility is the foundational character to all the others. You can't build or develop the others without this one. Humility is the starting place for deeper character development. It takes a strong self image to perform truly humble acts of service.
Here's something I will leave you to ponder on today:
"It is always the secure who are humble"
G.K Chesterton
G.K Chesterton
Tomorrow we will look at "Pride" as that has to be dealt with to develop true humility.
Matthew 23:12 - For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Matthew 23:12 - For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
4 comments:
Hi Kathy,
Yippee... one of my favorite subjects... Ha.
Seriously, I am always amazed at what some supposed 'religious' people consider to be humble.
I like this: "It is always the secure who are humble"
G.K Chesterton
It has been my humble observation that those who are insecure always seem to be the ones 'fighting' to prove they are something and someone. On the other hand the humble "know" who they are so they can let the prideful have their way without ever saying a word.
I'm glad you mentioned that anything less than humility is "false humility". I was thinking about that a while ago. I think I suffer from that a bit. I don't mean to be "false", but in my effort to try to be humble I become dishonest. For instance, if God has really blessed someone with a gift or talent and someone comes to them and says, "You are a great artist" or musician or helper or whatever ... to say "Oh, no I'm not" is not being honest, which is what humility is. Pure honesty about yourself, your gifts, everything. I've learned to just accept it and say, "Thank you."
Hi Cindy!
I've missed you! How's that garden growing...I need to check your blog. :) It is true, even as I look at times in my life that I can look back now and see myself trying to "be someone" I can see all the insecurity and pride that went with it. I have certainly not arrived but I am getting closer! God has a way of bringing humbleness into our lives if we aren't willing to do it ourselves.
I love your comment Ruthy because I think that is such a misconception that we have - that we can not actually accept a compliment without it looking like pride but I have learned to do the same as you and simple say, "Thank you". I know in my heart and mind that whatever it was, if it was good, it came from God and that is what matters.
There is a great part in our bible study about this in week three.
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