I've been thinking a lot about pride lately and how it was the first sin of mankind, and especially how it is so pervasive in our present society. In fact, pride seems to be encouraged among our youth. Where is humility to be found these days?
I heard Beth Moore once state that Pride is the complete Anti-God state of mind. Not only that but I've come to realize that pride is also a form of anti-love. Pride makes it impossible to truly love others. When a person has pride, they are always focusing on themselves and their achievements and never on others. Pride is self-honoring, self-serving and highly judgmental of others. It is never satisfied until it is better than everyone around it.
Yea, yea, you say. I've heard all that before. What has that to do with me? I'm a pretty humble person. In fact, I don't think very highly of myself at all. I'm extremely insecure and prefer to stay out of the limelight. Really? Me too. I always thought I must be the humblest person on the planet. But you know what I discovered? I have just as much pride as the person who loves the attention and flaunts themselves around. Insecurity is a very insidious form of pride and I think the worst form because it fools us into thinking we are humble. When we are insecure, when we are worried about what others think, when we think we are humble, what are we doing except focusing all our thoughts on ourselves.
You see, humility is the complete absence of self awareness. A truly humble person does not spend his time thinking about himself. When he is with other people, he isn't worried about what they think of him or thinking how their presence can benefit him. He is truly With them in every sense because his thoughts are on them and them alone.
Remember this verse in Philippians 2:5-7 ?
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
If you study the Greek word for the participle "being" you'll discover that based on its context, the actual meaning is "because" In other words, Jesus did not make himself of no reputation despite the fact that He was God. No, He did it because that type of humility is the very nature of God. His humility was revealing who God really is.
That blew me away. How far short I fall from such a standard.
Let us all ask God to reveal areas of pride in our hearts and to show us how we can change and become as humble as He is. What a different world this would be!
Man, that really struck a chord with me! I feel the same as you, I'm pretty humble. But in light of what you wrote, um, maybe not so much. I think also there's pride in believing that I'm Miss Humble!! So much to learn about humility.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing!!
PS I got my book in the mail. Thanks so much!!
Blessings,
Mimi B
Yep, I totally get you. I know plenty of people who are retire behind their shy/timid (i.e. "humble") facade and the bottom line is that they are really focused on themselves and their own needs or feelings. I remember once being told that I was bold and outgoing because I do a lot of public speaking. However, just the opposite is true--I'm really quaking in my boots, but I don't make a fuss about it. I'm trying to center my thoughts on God and/or the audience rather than on my own fears. I guess what I'm trying to say is that one thing is disguised as another (such as pride disguised as humility, etc.) a lot more than we realize. "Search me, O God, and know my thoughts..." Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAmen. I dealt with this a lot with my mom. She had a horrible self-image and constantly put herself down. It really was a form of pride. Because no one could be as horrible as she was, and she certainly didn't deserve any grace (in her way of thinking). It was really just a twisted form of pride. I'm trying to stop it with my generation and not pass it on to my kids.
ReplyDeleteOh, man, this is so totally true! This just sums up perfectly a lot of the stuff I've been thinking about lately! I mean, every single sin boils down to pride - our thinking that our ways are better than His ways. Thanks for posting this!
ReplyDelete-Sapphire