Pride and Humility are like a coin.
The word Proud is defined as:
having or showing a high or excessively high opinion of oneself or one’s importance.
There is a time when we can, and all should, be proud of ourselves and of others – like when your child does well at something or exceeds at something they have worked hard towards or when you succeed at doing something great. It’s fine to be proud of your or other people’s achievements. It can bring happiness and a great sense of self-worth to one’s life. The problem is that pride is like a coin. It has two sides to it and the other side of the pride coin comes in the form of arrogance and superiority – when a person’s ego becomes so great that they start to believe that they are better and above everybody else. This is the negative side of pride.
The word Humble is defined as:
having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s importance.
Being humble is a noble trait and I am sure most people actually prefer humble people more than they enjoy arrogant and prideful people. Being humble shows modesty in a person. I am sure you and many others are more drawn to unpretentious and down to earth people. Most people actually like describing themselves as down to earth. I’ve never heard someone say: “Yeah, I am actually a very proud and arrogant person” when introducing themselves. Have you? You see, there is also a flip side to humility. The other side of that coin is false humility. Here is a fantastically perfect word I found online that gives a definition of false humility:
Humblebrag (n.) A seemingly humble statement whose actual purpose is to draw attention to something of which one is proud.
We should take care to not cross the line in respect to both pride and humility especially when it comes to God.
Back to good
I got a profound answer the other day when I was finding it hard to connect to God because I was going through things that were breaking my faith. It’s easy to respond to God when everything is going well in your life but when things are not going so well it’s even easier to turn your back on your faith. When you have prayer requests that are going unanswered and your world is falling apart, you begin to question God and his lack of response. You can begin to query whether you can actually trust in Him to get you out of whatever situation you are facing.
I found myself demanding God for answers, similar to Job. I felt I deserved an answer to appease my doubt and pain. That is when I heard this small voice say: “Do not be proud.” To be honest, at first that got my back up and I began to argued even more. “I’m not being proud, I am just wanting what you have promised in your word.” I retorted. I continued my rant exclaiming how Jesus has said that anything we ask for in his name we shall receive so why then are my prayers for healing and provision and everything else going unanswered.
I am sure I am not alone in this. We must have all freaked out over this issue a few times in our lives… right?
My pride had surfaced and I realised it after a while. I was commanding the creator of the universe to do my bidding like He was some kind of genie in a bottle. The worst part is that I was actually beginning to grow further away from Him because of my disdain and disappointment.
Who exactly did I think I was and why did I believe that I deserved anything from God? It was my pride that made me think and feel this way, my pride had made me believe that I was worthy of a response and that is when I realised the truth and that truth is found in the Bible:
“Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall.” – Proverbs 16:18
Haughtiness means arrogance. I had become so arrogant towards God and I realised I had to truly humble myself before the Lord. I had to realise the pecking order of this universe and quick or I would fall fast and hard and when I did that, my heart began to change. I could no longer threaten God.
The Bible tells us another great truth that we should all get deep into our hearts and minds:
“But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” – Matthew 23:12
I realised that in life in general, we must all stop believing we are more deserving of things than anyone else. We must stop aiming for position and instead aim to do the best with what we have in our hands. Then God will lift us up at the perfect time.
So if you are struggling with this kind of thing in your life at the moment, I ask that you take inventory of your heart and mind and begin to realise who God is and stop thinking that He owes you or that you deserve anymore than the person next to you. We are all equally loved and cherished by God and He has the final say and there is nothing we can do about that. All we must do is to continue to serve Him out of pure love for Him, knowing that what He did at the cross is enough.
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