Word of the Week - Humility
"God resists the proud, but shows favor to the humble.” James 4:6
Humility is a personal attribute that typically means a person is free from egotism and arrogance. Humble people tend to think more about others than themselves, especially how their actions will affect others. I love this quote from Ken Blanchard author and business guru, “Humble people don’t think less of themselves, they think of themselves less”. Humble people recognize the value of others and try to bring the best out of those around them.
God loves Humility - It is very clear throughout scripture that God favors the Humble and detests those who are proud. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in Humility value others above yourselves, not looking at your own interests but each of you to the interest of the others.” Philippians 2:3-4 This is very different from our modern day narcissistic culture of self-focus, self-reliance and self-promotion. With the proliferation of social media, we have generations that are being trained and conditioned to drive and feed their ego through virtual reality with pictures and post to say to the world “look at me and how great and important I am”. With all of the noise in our culture, Humility can be hard to pinpoint and self-evaluate. Most people today don’t value Humility because they are mesmerized by the lie of our humanistic culture and don’t really understand what true godly Humility looks like.
Humility is not weakness - The world associates Humility with weakness and self-deprecation. So what does it look like to live in godly Humility? If we look at some of the most relevant examples of Humility in the bible such as Jesus and Moses, we clearly understand that Humility is more about how we see ourselves in relationship to God and to others. To be Humble is to gratefully recognize our dependence on the Lord – to understand that we have constant need for His support and presence. It is also understanding that our talents, abilities and blessings are gifts from God. Humility begins with a heart of gratitude. It is realizing that we all need others in our lives and much of our success in life is because of others, not of our own strength. A person of true Humility readily expresses appreciation for the gifts of God and others. He or she gives credit where it is due. Truly humble people are others-focused and genuinely interested in others. Being Humble is not a sign of weakness, timidity, or fear; it is really an indication that we are secure in Christ and know where our true strength and identity lies. True Humility gives us the ability to be fearless and courageous as we deal with challenging people and circumstances. Jesus was the greatest example of Humility. During His time on earth, He always acknowledged that His strength came from His dependence on His Father. “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgement is just, for I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me” John 5:30. The Lord will strengthen us as we Humble ourselves before Him by acknowledging who He is and how much we are dependent upon Him. “Humble yourself in the site of the Lord, and He shall lift you up” James 4:10
Fruits of Humility – Author and business guru Patrick Lencioni in his book “The Ideal Team Player” states that Humility is one of the 3 top characteristics desired in top producing team players. Lencioni describes a humble team player as someone willing to listen to others and admit they don’t have all the answers. They appreciate Stephen Covey’s principle to “Seek First to Understand, Then be Understood.” They don’t have big egos. They want to see the team succeed and not just themselves. They say “we” more than they say “I”. In one of the best-selling business books of all time “Good to Great”, Jim Collins discovered this was one of the key driving factors to some of the greatest companies in the world – Level 5 leadership defined as leaders who led with Humility by giving their teams credit for the success and taking personal responsibility when things did not go as expected.
God’s ways are not our natural ways but they sure do work! So let’s Humble ourselves and see the Lord’s favor work in our lives.
Have a great week!!!!
-Duane