4 Reasons to Pursue Humility

People like people to obey human teachings, this over spiritual teachings or those presented in the Bible. For that, people find it much more important to stick to what their church community teaches them. As a result, they do not have to take responsibility for choosing a particular doctrine themselves.

Many people forget that it takes a form of humility to accept Biblical Truth for what it is and to start living according to Biblical teachings instead of going along with the majority of people who have joined some majority church.

As believers in God, we should rather seek what we really want. Do we want to follow Christ or rather follow a church?

We should dare not to go for the easy answers, whereby church fathers say we do not have to think about it much, because we would not understand. For centuries many churches have presented their answers to take, without wanting to let you wonder and question them. Coming closer to important times it shall become even more important to question everything, and certainly the church and faith.

Coming to faith requires humility to admit scriptural knowledge and daring to set aside dogmas proposed by men.

Marcus Ampe

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Our culture constantly tells us to build our self-esteem and think highly of ourselves.

Yet the Bible urges us to do the opposite. To pursue humility. It’s actually a glorious pursuit. And we have plenty of reasons to be humble. Here are a few:

We can’t control anything. We like to think we are in control. We make plans, write out our lists, book our flights, mark our calendars. Yet we can’t control a single thing.

Come now, you who say,

“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”

— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say,

“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13–15

We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We don’t know what the next hour will bring. Or the next 5 minutes for that matter. One little artery in our brain could burst. We could get a phone call with news that will alter our lives permanently. I don’t live in fear of the unknown, but it is humbling to contemplate our lack of control over our lives.

We are only here for a tiny blip of time.

“What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

This is humbling. We are nothing great. In the blink of an eye we’ll be gone. We can’t keep our own hearts beating or maintain our breathing. We can’t keep ourselves alive. We can exercise and eat well, and that has some value, but it won’t add a single hour to our lives. God has determined the number of our days.

We are limited in our self-knowledge.

“Know thyself”

said a philosopher. We can know a lot about ourselves, yet there is much we don’t. We can’t fully know our own hearts and motives. We can’t fully know our own weaknesses and sins or see them as others can. Proverbs 12:15 says,

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”

So often my first reaction to correction is to think the other person is wrong and that I’m right — right in my own eyes. That’s why we need brothers and sisters to help us, as it says in Psalm 141:5:

“Let a righteous man strike me — it is a kindness; let him rebuke me — it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it.”

It is a kindness when a brother or sister points out a sin or weakness. In our pride we are tempted to “refuse it.” But a humble person receives correction because he knows he is limited in self-knowledge.

Pride has terrible consequences; humility brings blessing. Proverbs 18:12 says,

“Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.”

I’d rather have honor than destruction. So I must guard against pride, which is always lurking in my heart.

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (JA 4:6).

I don’t enjoy it when people oppose me, but definitely don’t want God opposing me. Really good reason to be humble.

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” (PR 11:2).

Destruction, the opposition of God, disgrace — pride has serious consequences.

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (LK 14:11).

Humility will keep us from sin. A humble person knows he has fallen in the past in many ways and is capable of any sin. A humble person knows that if God doesn’t deliver him from temptation and evil, he is helpless to stand against it. A humble person doesn’t think that he is strong enough to expose himself to sin and not be affected, so he flees temptation. A humble person knows that God is working in him, yet he isn’t perfected yet.

These are but a few of many reasons to pursue humility. May we all seek to be lowly in spirit, like the most humble man who ever walked the earth, our Savior.

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Mark Altrogge has been senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Indiana, Pennsylvania, since 1982. He has written hundreds of songs for worship, including “I Stand in Awe” and “I’m Forever Grateful.” Mark and his wife, Kristi, have four sons and one daughter. Find out more on his blog, The Blazing Center.

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Preceding

Don’t Harden Your Heart

Willing to be little

Humility

I is for Incompleteness

Learning from ourselves

Your Life: Habit or Freedom?

The Grace of Humility

More on Grace and Spiritual Fruit – Abide in Me, and I in you

Spiritual growth expansion of self-awareness

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Additional reading

1. A Book to trust #8 Father of the universe wanting His creatures to know Him
2. Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God
3. Created in the image of the Elohim to use their likeness properly
4. Man enticed to long for more
5. the Bible – God’s guide for life #8 Looking to Jesus #1 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus
6. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God
7. Do we know the right things
8. A heart full of love is a fundamental requirement
9. Matthew 7:1-11 – The Nazarene’s Commentary on Neighbor Love Continued 8: Matthew 7:6-11 Giving and neighbor love
10. Matthew 18:1-6 Reborn and pliable as a child
11. Matthew 23:1-12 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Prominence and Humility
12. Unless I wash you, you have no part with me
13. Faithful Are the Wounds of a Friend
14. Today’s thought “He humbled himself by becoming …” (April 8)
15. An Appeal in Troubled Times
16. Failing Man to make free choice
17. Full text of Pope Francis’ Interview with ‘La Vanguardia’
18. Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
19. There is no true and constant gentleness without humility
20. Humility and the Fear of the Lord
21. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
22. Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience
23. A Living Faith #4 Effort
24. When a person looks for or has the need to Choose the Right Church
25. When seeing a biblically sound church

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