Everyone wants to be known as a humble person but very few are willing to do what it takes to become humble. The door of humility is dying for Christ.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. [NKJV]
We have to be willing to die to self and live in Jesus. In theory, this sounds good, but to actually do this requires a deep commitment to the purpose of Jesus Christ.
The religious world clams, “I am just being your humble servant.” When in fact, this attitude is what the Bible calls false humility in Colossians 2:18. This statement is made out of pride to make one's self look more humble than they really are. Humility is having the lack of ego or pride. The lack of ego is not emphasizing yourself. It comes from the Latin word humilis, which literally means low. Therefore, to say you are just being a humble servant is not showing humility, on the contrary, the statement brings attention to you, not the act of being humble. If you think you’ve attained any measure of humility, you’ve got to be on guard against being proud of your humility!
You cannot make yourself be humble, but you can become humble.
You become humble by how much you die to yourself and live more like Jesus.
A humble person will:
Kill selfishness.
Kill pride.
Kill the need to make a point.
Kill ego, which is an inflated feeling of superiority toward others and self-glorification.
Have a willingness to be patient and long-suffering.
Have an attitude of being meek, which is mild control without self-interest.
Matthew 11:29-30
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
1st Peter 5:6-7 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for he cares for you.”
Proverbs 3:34 “Surely He scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble.”
Proverbs 16:19 “Better to be a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.”
James 4:6,10 “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. . .Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
Colossians 2:18,23 “Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility…These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh."
Examples of Humility
No one will deny that Mother Teresa was a humble person. She went about her work in the alleys and back streets of Calcutta, India without any regard for herself. She worked endlessly so dying, hungry and illiterate people could be better cared for. She never entertained interviews from reports because she said it put emphasis on her and not on Jesus. She would not let the Nobel Peace Prize Committee interview her for this same reason, yet she still received the prize in 1979.
One of our greatest examples in the scriptures of a humble person was John the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth; better known as John the Baptist. His story is told in Luke 1:5-16; 57-66; 3:1-22. In the Gospel of John Chapter 3, people came to John where he was baptizing near Aenon, in the southeastern region of Galilee, along the Jordan River, to ask him if he was the Christ, that is the Messiah? John's answer was one of humility when he said, "He (the Christ) must increase, but I must decrease", (John 3:30). John the Baptist was truly practicing humility because he took the emphasis off of himself and placed it on Christ. Jesus' testimony about John was. . ."among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist". . .(Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28). Because John was willing to decrease and let Jesus increase, he showed forth the true virtue of humility.
John enjoyed immediate popular success, as all Jerusalem, Judea, and those from surrounding areas were going out to him, in the wilderness, to confess their sins and be baptized (Matthew 3:5-6). If anyone could have easily fallen into the trap of pride, it would have been John the Baptist. Instead, he understood his role in the Kingdom of God and allowed Jesus to take center stage. John understood he was the forerunner of the Messiah and encouraged all of his disciples to follow Jesus (Matthew 3:11; John 3:31-36).
Humilities Enemy. . .Pride
Pride is the defeat of humility, being the root of most sin. Pride was probably Satan’s original sin, when he said, “I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14). Pride was the bait Satan used to tempt Eve when he set aside what God had said, and assured her that if she ate of the forbidden fruit, she would be like God (Genesis 3:1-6). Whenever we sin, we are arrogantly asserting that we know what is better for us than God does. Humility stems from understanding who God is and who we are.
Then we agree with what God's Word says about who we are and doing what God's Word says we can do. When you realize that God's will is better for you than your own understanding, you are becoming more humble.
Humility Brings Things with It
Humility is God's path to more grace. The more you let God's will work in you, the more humble you become as His grace gives you more ability to grow in spiritual things. You start to recognize things you never understood before. God's grace starts giving you wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, as you are enlightened with greater understanding in the hope that He has called you in (Ephesians 1:17-18).
More grace causes you to be more dependent on God. You come to know that it is God that makes life fulfilled by doing things His way. Your new found understanding gives you insights that all good things come from God himself (James 1:17). You realize that in God, that is in Christ, all things are available to you and you begin depending on God more. The more you pray, the more you seek Him, the more you chose to turn toward God for all your needs, help, and guidance, God continues to work His grace in your life, and you become more and more humble without knowing it.
This brings you to greater faith and practice of all these things. Your desires change and you find yourself wanting to be just like Jesus. You realize diminishing yourself pushes the character of Jesus out. Before long you are going through your day hoping to have opportunities to help people overcome in Christ. Your personality begins to shape into something that is recognizable to that of Jesus himself. Then one day you hear someone comment that you are such a humble person. You became humble but you did not make yourself that way, Jesus in you did the work.
Humility is the Secret of Blessings
When Jesus started teaching on the Kingdom of God, the Bible says, "Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying. . ." (Matthew 5:2) and Jesus shared what has become known as the Beatitudes. He was speaking blessings upon those who are poor in spirit, mourn, are meek, hunger after righteousness, are merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted. You will notice that every one of these virtues describes people who do not place emphasis on themselves. It could be said that each of these virtues is partial definitions of humility; for you will not obtain any of these without having some level of humility. Jesus said blessed are those who are these things. With humility comes great blessings for the Lord. Because humility is not self-imposing, God wishes to make happy all those who put forth efforts to be humble.
A Servant's Attitude is Humility
It is human nature to want the best things for yourself. It is human nature to desire great positions, wealth, and power over people. Though it is in our nature to want these things, it will not bring a person to the place of humility. People of great position, power and wealth can be humble, it is just not a normal thing. Only through learning how to have a servant's attitude will a person truly come to the place they are humble. You can be strong as an individual, having a position, wealth, and even power, and yet still have a servant's heart. This was the case with the Roman Centurion that went to Jesus and asked him to heal his servant (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10). The centurion was so humbled by the power of Jesus he said he was not worthy of Jesus coming to his house.
Remember, humility comes from knowing who God is and understanding how He is able to work in your life.
This centurion understood Jesus was Lord and that he was able to just say the words for his servant to be healed. His humility really shown forth by the fact he asked Jesus to do this. Romans did not ask anyone to do anything. They commanded people to do what they wanted; and if they did not, usually the Roman officer would have that person killed. On the contrary, this Roman came feeling completely unworthy to have Jesus even come with him. He showed forth true humility.
Servant to Servants
Jesus said, "Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant" (Matthew 20:27). Oh, that we might have faith to carry this out. That we might grasp a passion to please our Lord and Savior so much we become willing to delight in the prosperity of being a blessing to the servants of God.
Humility can have no greater outcome than for a person to serve the servant. This is a greater level of service that is generally ignored, I feel on purpose because it requires a greater level of humility to bear it.
Having a heart that rejoices over the opportunity to serve those who have given themselves for service unto the Lord is the highest level of humility. This commitment is not done by people of low understanding, but rather it is a deep understanding of the needs people in service to the Kingdom endure. By presenting yourself to this level of service you gain the highest level of liberty,--the liberty from sin and self. Jesus has called us to be servants of one another. You will find the more heartily you accept this calling, the more blessed you become. You will experience a fuller liberty in Christ that so very few are willing to work for. At first, it may appear to be hard; only because the pride which still counts itself to be something in you is wanting out. Once you have learned to be nothing more than a servant before God and man is the glory of the creature, the spirit of Jesus in you, welcomes any discipline we may have to endure in serving whatever capacity God would allow you to be. The heart is opened to the purity of service and true satisfaction springs forth. You find a level of zest and fulfillment that Jesus understood when he said, "I am among you as he that serves" (Luke 22:27).
Humility is Simply Trusting God
Humility is trusting in God and not in ourselves. This is the reason it is easy to be humble when we've failed, and difficult to be humble when we've achieved great success. Pride is self-sufficiency and self-exaltation while humility is self-denial and dependence upon God.
The Kingdom of God is founded upon this principle of humility before honor. Godly love is selfless pride brings strife (Prov. 13:10). We will do good to practice humility so we can walk in love with our brothers and sisters in the Lord.