Take care lest you forget the LORD your God... who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. – Deuteronomy 8:11, 16, esv
Genuine humility is a strange but fascinating quality. Take Moses, for example. In the first third of his life, he was proud and arrogant. The adopted son of a Pharaoh’s daughter, he had clout. He didn’t have to tell people who he was. The way he walked and talked showed authority, and that’s what got him into serious trouble. It took 40 years for Moses to discover what God can do with a nobody who depends entirely on God’s power.
Peter, the one who was filled with the power of God’s Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, urged us to wear humility as an invisible garment. He put it in the context of young men complying with the leadership of older men, affirming their wisdom and striving to be like them. Peter wrote, “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5:5).
John Bunyan, who lived in Bedford, England, was a welder, but he was also a man of strong convictions. For 14 years he was imprisoned in jail while his blind daughter had to beg on the streets, going door to door selling the small pieces of lace his wife had crocheted. Bunyan wrote, “He that is down, need fear no fall/ He that is low, no pride. He that is humble ever shall/ Have God to be His guide.”
Those with authentic humility are not self-deprecating, always saying how terrible they look, how poor they are, or how ill-equipped or poorly-endowed they are – something that actually calls attention to themselves in a kind of perverse way. Generally speaking, true humility is something that others recognize, not something you proclaim yourself.
Used with permission from Guidelines International Ministries. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, send an e-mail to info@guidelines.org. You may also visit www.guidelines.org.