Being humble

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.” 1 Peter 5:6
Humility is one of the traits that the Bible often talks about, as something that believers should be developing. We read of how Jesus – God Himself – humbled Himself in coming to earth as a human and dying on the cross (the most humiliating form of death ever invented), see Phil. 2:5-8. So what is humility, and how do we develop it? And how do we avoid falling into the trap of developing false humility – being proud of how humble we are?
Being humble is not about what you have or don’t have, in terms of possessions or opportunities. Rather, being humble is the opposite of being proud. We read in Proverbs (quoted by James), “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Prov. 3:34, James 4:6). Humility means not blowing your own trumpet and bragging about how great you are. Those are outward things, however, and humility is a heart attitude. It’s possible to abase ourselves verbally, saying things like, ‘Well I’m not that great’ but inwardly thinking about how great we are for saying we’re not great. That’s false humility. Real humility – and this doesn’t develop overnight, but is a work of the Holy Spirit in us – is both not saying and not thinking that we are great.
One key step in developing a Biblical attitude of humility is to always remember where you came from, spiritually, and realise that you only are what you are because of what God has done. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Once we get rid of those prideful attitudes about ourselves, then God is able to raise us up and use us for His glory.