One crashes you down and the other elevates and honors you. What are these opposites?
Simple but profound truth- Pride crashes you down to destruction, humility elevates you to higher grounds and achievements.
Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before stumbling”
Proverbs 22:4 “Humility is the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honor and life.”
The pride actually means having a haughty spirit. Per Webster dictionary, haughty means arrogantly superior and disdainful. The one who thinks about self-importance promotes oneself and consider himself more important than others. Pride can show in many ways in our attitude.
Examples of pride nature
Some of the examples are trying to show yourself better than others when you really are not, judgmental toward others, a stubborn nature, not gracious to others, not willing to listen and get counsels from others, not willing to forgive etc. Bible says in Romans 12:3, “Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.” A right assessment about oneself will keep one safe and secure most of the time.
Paul asked these questions in 1 Corinthians 4:7, “For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?” See, Why do you judge another one? Who gave the right to do that? If what you and I have is what God graciously in His kindness provided, then why do we boast and proudful as if these are your own achievements? We didn’t earn it but God in his grace and mercy gave to you what you have. This thought can change our life attitudes.
Bible says in Roman 14:4, “Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? Their own master will judge whether they stand or fall. And with the Lord’s help, they will stand and receive his approval.” God is the one who helps His servant to stand and receive approval. Who are we to condemn others? These are some serious questions we need to answer. We can’t ignore these questions.
Two destinations- pride crash you down and humility elevates and honors you.
Bible says Pride and haughty spirit leads to only one destination. What is it? Pride and a haughty spirit go before stumbling and destruction. You can bank on it. This has been and will always be a true statement.
If pride produces crash, humility which is the opposite of pride, always results always produces honor and exaltation. Pride destroys your growth, relationship with God and one another. On the other hand, humility builds you up and elevates you to higher grounds and achievements.
Jesus said in Luke 14:11, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” A proud person will be eventually humbled and a humble person will be eventually exalted per Jesus. Time will always prove this eternal truth.
James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
Did this thought ever cross your mind that God opposes and resists those who are proud? I don’t want God to oppose and resist me. Do you? I don’t mind people opposing me. But surely I don’t want the God of the universe to resist or oppose me. What an awful and dangerous condition that would be?
My dear ones, don’t you want to have humility instead of proudness? I do. The original sins that crashed Lucifer and his gangs were pride and arrogance. Don’t you remember? God immediately punished him and his groups who became devil and demons. This proud nature is what the serpent, the devil, ignited in our first parents, Adam and Eve. He wanted Adam and Eve to disbelieve what God said. The serpent who is the devil said to them, “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” They fell prey to the deception of the devil.
Perfect Example.
Yes, we have the perfect example of humility in Christ. (Refer Philippians 2). Have this mind in you as it was in Jesus – made Himself humble. How? Read Philippians 2: 6-8. It says there though He was God, he gave up his privileges, took the humble position of a slave, obeyed the Father’s willfully, and died a criminal’s death on the cross for you and me.
What was the result? Read Philippians 2:9-11. It says there- Therefore, God elevated Him to the place of highest honor and gave Him the name above all other names, at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
But we need more than an example, don’t we?- on our knees and holding a bigger picture
Of course, we can see the example of humility in the pages of Gospels from the life history of Christ many times. However, the example of Jesus Christ is not just good enough, what we need is this- we need to be on our knees on an ongoing basis for the daily impartation of this divine virtue from God through Christ and His Holy Spirit living in us to keep ongoing humility in our lives.
A bigger picture.
In John 3:27, John the Baptist replied and said, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven.” God reminds us in Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it”. You see, all on this earth, everything in the world and all who live in it belong to God. God in his sovereign will give some of it to you and me for a temporary custody and we are just the custodians of what God temporarily gave to us. This is a keynote to keep in our hearts and minds. And a second question to keep in our hearts is the one we addressed above in this insight. And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?” Pride nature doesn’t estimate and understand the truth that all we got is from the hands of God only. Therefore, only a fool can keep a pride and arrogant nature and God hates it (Proverbs 8:13).
