The Law of Humility, the Wall of Pride

UV 3358/10000 The Law of Humility, the Wall of Pride
Humble yourselves (with an attitude of repentance and insignificance) in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you ( He will lift you up, He will give you purpose).

James 4 v 10

The Lord hates those who are proud and arrogant, who disregard the greatness of God and think no end of themselves. The Lord will humble them in due time. At the same time, He loves those who are humble, who are constantly aware of their own sinfulness, their insignificance and powerlessness. When we voluntarily humble ourselves, the Lord promises to lift us up, to give us both purpose and the power to fulfil it. He promises to exalt us so that we continue to exult in Him. Humility is not false modesty but a realistic assessment of oneself and one’s role and importance in the overall scheme of things. We have no grandiose notions about ourselves. We realize we are nothing before God, we are no one significant before Him. Anything we aspire for or achieve is done in Him, for Him, through Him.

Jesus is the ultimate model of humility. He has everything in the universe at His feet from before time or through eternity. Yet He humbled Himself to be one of us, insignificant, vulnerable. Though He remained sinless during His earthly sojourn even though He was subjected to even greater hardship and temptations than any of us He did not equate Himself with God or exalt Himself. He made Himself as small, vulnerable as a voiceless lamb. He did amazing miracles but He did not take pride in it. He never wantonly flaunt His power at any moment. At the time of His arrest by Roman guards, His mock trial and crucifixion, He could have avoided unbearable pain, scorn, torture and torment by using His own supernatural and unlimited power or summoned legions of angels to His aid but He humbly submitted to the will of God and of man. His is the absolute level of humility. Hence, He alone could say, “Look at me and learn from my humility and gentleness.” The very fact He upheld His quality as humility to His disciples to emulate shows that humility is the greatest of the fruit of the spirit.

Humility is an attitude of man vis- a- vis God and others where we do not regard ourselves superior to anyone else. Though it is an inner attitude, it gets reflected constantly in our thoughts, words and actions. The Lord examines us daily and when He finds there is no pride in us, He is most pleased with us. He then shows His favour by orchestrating circumstances to lift us up, to move us to higher and higher levels. We realize that it is His hand that is doing it and do not take any pride in our attainments but attribute it all to the Lord. Hence, scripture sums it up in these beautiful and truthful words, “ He gives grace to the humble but resists the proud.” He enables the humble to achieve their goals in line with the purpose set for them while He proves a foil and a wall of obstruction to the proud at heart.