Inspiration & Worship

Inspiration & Worship Got Humility?

“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” – James 4:6

This easy-to-understand concept is among the most repeated in Scripture, but the toughest to internalize, given our culture. “Why shouldn’t we be proud of ourselves?” we think. In truth, while beauty/money/talent etc. can be very good things, none of us would have anything at all without God. Life itself, and the very air we breathe, is a gift from God. Only by His incomprehensible will do we exist.

Therefore, grateful obedience to God, not pride in self, is our appropriate response. We’re the creation. Only God is the creator.

Human “pride” is nearly always a negative reference in scripture. Pride and a haughty spirit go before “a fall,” says Proverbs 16:18.

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” –Proverbs 11:2

No one has fallen further than Lucifer, who was the most beautiful angel in Heaven, before God cast him out. “Your heart was

proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground ...” – Ezekiel 28:7

Lucifer even dared to compare himself with God. Most anything in which we take great pride soon becomes more important to us than God, and more important to us than the work He’s given us to do. Before we know it, our eyes are fixed on earthly things, rather than “things above.”

Jesus dealt with the stink of human arrogance when his 12 disciples argued among themselves about which of them was greatest. He said: “If anyone would be first, he must

be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but Him who sent me.” – Mark 9:33-37

Children had the least clout of anyone in Jesus’ society. To take up the cause of a child was to invite scorn, not social promotion. But that’s exactly what Jesus asks of us: That we lift up the weak, not ourselves, to please God. Paul advised: “Do nothing from rivalry

or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. – Philippians 2: 3-4

Humility matters.