Humility has a number of different facets to it, and pride does as well. Probably the most common one is “I don’t need you, I can do it by myself”. The reason this attitude is very common is because most tend not to see that expression as a weakness, fault, or character flaw, but as a strength of self-sufficiency.  But God made us with a very narrow area of strength, giftedness, and ability, and in order to accomplish anything of significance we need to do it with others. The most powerful group to corporately accomplish significant things with is the church. Most see the church as an option in their life, and their view of the church is so low their involvement is unfaithful to the point that they gain little and give little.

Hebrews 10:24-25  and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

These two verses are very emphatically stated as commands to be kept diligently, but most are totally blind to the emphasis of these verses, and the consequence of failing to obey these three commands.  All that God gives to us in life He gives to us through other people. He made it that way, but we don’t seem to get it. It would be like if there was one person who can feed me, only one, and if I eat food from any other source I will die. And there also is only one person who can give me my Parkinson’s medicine, and if  I take it from any other source, I will get super sick. And there is a dozen other things like that with different people ministering to each other, and others in the group have the dependency on me.

Romans 12:3-6. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: 

I can tell you how much I weigh because I stepped on a scale this morning,  I often measure the length of a fish I catch with a tape measure. Occasionally when someone in our household talks of not feeling well Patty gets out the thermometer and takes their temperature.  We can measure and quantify many things in our life, but how do we measure our pride/humility quotient.  Humility is a character trait and pride is the absence of that character trait. The level of each character trait is who we are, it is what we are. Character has been described as what we are in the dark, or what we are when no one is looking. I define character as what and who we are when we die and stand before Jesus. In this life the various character traits show up in various ways and circumstances. Humility is best measured by how we treat people, especially those who violate our rights, hurt us, and that we don’t like.  As Jesus said, anybody can love those who love them first, and anybody can be nice to those who are nice to them first, but only a very  strong person can love those who hurt them, who cheated them, and dishonored them. That strength comes from the inner character of humility. 

Jesus said in Matthew 23:11-12. But the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

When we humble ourselves by treating people who hurt us, offended us, and violated our personal rights with dignity and honor God will exalt us. When we are exalted by God we gain His inner strength, we sense His pleasure in us, and we become the one who gains the power to influence the other person so that they grow and change for the better. 

Most choose to exalt themselves, that is they choose to retaliate, be rude, get angry, be bitter, and gossip,and slander the other person as a way of getting even. God is very involved in these situations, and those who choose this behavior He humbles, and being humbled by God is not a pleasant experience. 

Psalms 10:17. O Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble;  You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear

Psalms 37:11. But the humble will inherit the land. And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

James 4:6. But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

So, how much do you weigh? How tall are you? How old are you? How humble are you?  You answer that question by asking and answering another question. How do you treat people who have not treated you well? You will know the answer to that question. Don’t justify, or excuse, or blame, answer the question honestly. 

Often people will think that a truly humble person is weak, that a person who responds with gracious speech to the one who spoke rudely is a wimp, and that a person who  treats someone with honor and kindness  who has violated their personal rights is a coward, but the truth is they are the strongest of all people, and being exalted by God means you will be able to rise above the situations and see everything as God does, and understand the way God does. 

If you go back and read the last couple years of my blogs you will see that I have written about humility often. I think that is because it is one of the areas of my character that always needs work, and as I am writing for an audience I think I am motivated by the amount of character flaws I observe in others in this area as well. The Apostle Paul wrote much of the New Testament in the Bible, and he must have made the same observations because he wrote on the topic of humility and pride often as well. Of the 26 character traits that I study and reflect on and write about they all connect and intertwine like a bunch of worms in a can. Humility and pride are very much connected to the character trait of confidence, boldness, self-worth.  

A person who has a sense of low sell-worth will usually attempt to compensate by being a boastful person, and critical of others, gossiping about, and slandering them. That behavior may come across as pride, but it is really an attempt to avoid shame in their own life which is the most painful and feared of human emotions. As people work at having a sense of value the natural result is to pursue self-sufficiency. 

Probably the strongest manifestation of pride that I observe is the pull to be independent, and  self-sufficient as opposed to being inter-dependent, teachable, submissive, and susceptible. We want to be responsible, strong, resourceful and creative but not to the point of not needing others. As we grow in maturity there is a critical fork in the road where our growth bends in the direction of “I can do it all by myself, thank you very much!” God created us as people with great strengths, giftedness, and talents in a very small area of our life, and weakness, and deficiency in a very large area of our life. His plan is that we would be interdependent in our relationships and be great in our accomplishments as we worked together. Humility allows connectedness and interdependence to work well, but pride destroys it. 

I have 26 different character traits that I study and use to examine my life in detail, taking a different character trait each week to read and study about and then to think about myself in regards to this particular area and how I can improve and grow in it. This week it is the character trait of humility. In his book “Good to Great” Jim Collins writes about successful companies and the reasons that they are successful. A key reason is that they are led by people with what he calls level 5 leadership, which is  the highest level of leadership. The two key character traits of those who rise to this level of leadership is (1)passion, drive, and desire, and (2) humility. 

A major problem for many in trying to pursue humility is they don’t know exactly what it is. Often people think humility is thinking poorly of yourself, or at least talking poorly of yourself. Having confidence, and recognizing your strengths is not pride. Let me suggest 4 areas of humility.

(1) Pride is thinking I can accomplish anything on my own without the Lord’s strength and provision. 2 Corinthians 3:4-6 says, “Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant.

(2) pride is thinking that I can accomplish anything of significance on my own, without help  from other people. 

(3) pride is putting my needs ahead of or before those who are around me. 

(4) Pride is thinking and acting like I am more important than others.

(5) Pride is a way of acting and talking to others that makes them feel humiliated

I will write about humility more tomorrow.