I’ve been thinking a lot recently about humility, and the differences between godly humility, self-righteous humility, and dangerous self criticism that comes from listening to the enemies’ lies. So let’s look at the three levels of humility and see which one we are to have, and which is the one we should identify and dispose of before the enemy uses them to destroy our Christian walk.
The first one we’ll look at is self righteous humility. It’s safe to say that this one is all tied up in appearance and what people think of us. This one is what people make fun of when they say “I am SO humble” in an exaggerated tone. They use their status of being humble to feed their prideful desires of self worth in this world. Scripture clearly warns against a life like this in Matthew 6:1-8 when it talks about how the Pharisees did things like giving their alms, praying and possibly being humble for appearance purpose only. It also says in Colossians 3:23 “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” This means that if we are being humble we should only care about one who sees it, and that is God, and defer whatever praise we may receive for our acts of humility. Be humble about your humility!
The next one is dangerous self criticism; self pity. This usually manifests itself as a thought which sounds similar to this one “I don’t deserve that praise because I am undeserving of anything, because I am such a lowlife sinful person.” It is important, as a Christian, to acknowledge that we are a sinner, but far too often that is the only thing people dwell on. You were a sinner before you came into a relationship with Christ, but now you have been saved from the life as a sinner and you are now a Child of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” All things, even the status of who you once were, have passed away. Yes, you were a sinner, but you are no longer a sinner you are a child of God, and to say that you are a helpless sinner only makes what Christ did for us on the cross sound so pathetic. So don’t wallow in your self-pity, and don’t listen to the enemies lies that take hold of your life. This type of thinking will hinder you from accomplishing the great works God has planned for your life.
The last one is godly humility. It perplexed me for a while as to what godly humility could be defined as, but it came to me as I was reading a book called The Bondage Breaker by Neil Anderson. In the book he basically talks a lot about finding about how much power we have in Christ as Christians against our enemy. There was one part where he said “Pride says, ‘I resisted the devil all by myself.’ False humility says, ‘God resisted the devil; I did nothing.’ True humility says, “I resisted the devil by the grace of God.’ Apart from Christ we can do nothing, but that doesn’t mean we’re not supposed to do something. We exercise authority humbly in His strength and in his name.” THAT’S IT! Didn’t those first two points (the prideful one and the false humility one) sound a lot like the first two levels of humility? That means my answer to what godly humility is lies in his example of true humility. Godly humility is found when we first humble our self image by realizing every good thing you do is not of your own power, and acknowledging that what you have been, and will be able to do, is from the grace and power of Jesus Christ. Only then will you find boldness in the LORD and your authority in Christ against the enemy. Remember the poor thinking from the self-pity humility? The one that always dwelled on the fact that you are a sinner? Well, there is a healthy version of that thinking. If you only remember that you were a sinner before the LORD swept in and saved you, but now you are a child of God, you then break the false reasoning of self-pity (Because you are no longer a sinner, but a child of God), destroy your prideful self-esteem (because if it wasn’t for Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, you’d be a sinner still, you had nothing to do with breaking free from that), and move on to godly humility; accepting the fact that every good thing you do is of the LORD and you now have the living power of Christ in you to defeat the enemy. Be humble in your own strength, and be prideful of Jesus Christ who lives in you!
enjoyed it!
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