James 4:6,7 “But he gives us more grace. That is why the Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves, then, to God.”
The idea that God stands in concerted opposition to the proud is a powerful and sobering one. I might fancy my chances against many or even most opponents, but if I choose pride, then I’m choosing God as my opponent, and my chances are bleak. Pascal warned us: “Know then, proud man, what a paradox you are to yourself. Be humble, impotent reason! Be silent, feeble nature! Hear from your master your true condition, which is unknown to you. Listen to God.”
Humility, on the other hand, is the genuine conviction of one’s unworthiness of the grace of God. It literally means a low estimate of self, which is not the same as self-deprecation. When you hear someone deprecating himself, usually you can put it down to some sort of insecurity or counterfeit humility. Philip Brooks said: “The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your full height before some higher nature that will show you how small your greatness is. Stand at your very highest, and then look at Christ; then go away and be forever humble.” Seeing how little we are alongside his greatness is the first step towards being what he wants us to be.
Each one of us has a lifelong battle to wrestle with pride. Helen Keller wrote: “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.” So may we choose humility, whilst paying heed to this warning: “If you pray for humility, be careful. Humility is learned through humiliations!”
Lord, give me grace to be a humble, honest worker today. Amen!
P.S. Check out a sermon and blog I did on this passage from James
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