Bible Verse of the Day Tuesday April 30th 2024

Proverbs 18:12 Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.

The Proverbs are direct and forceful in rejecting pride and honoring humility. Pride is pagan behavior. It has no place in the lives of God's people. Pride is a declaration of independence from God, if not an assertion of war against Him. Therefore, pride draws God's scorn, sparks His ire, and guarantees His judgment. Moreover, the lofty are damaging their communities. It is impossible to love our neighbor as ourselves when we have an exaggerated sense of our importance, the proud exhaust their energy and love for their own needs with only table scraps for others. 

Pride and humility are the outcomes of our attitudes, opinions, and choices. The harmful results of pride are opposite to humility and its benefits. So, the sayings in Proverbs hammer hard against pride and drive home the importance of humility.

Remember, pride cast Nebuchadnezzar out of his mind (Daniel), King Saul out of his Kingdom, Adam out of paradise (Genesis.), Haman out of the royal court (Esther), and Lucifer out of heaven (Isaiah 14:12-20).

Humility is a difficult challenge for believers. Haughtiness comes in many forms. It can be aggressive bragging, inflated (inaccurate) selfishness, or "thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought." But it can also take another form: silencing ourselves, hoarding God's gifts, or denying our responsibility. 

These latter tendencies are the mask of false humility. The kind that pitches away any awareness of self in fear of concocting too much of oneself. Humility is simply seeing things as they indeed are. Honor (and, in that sense, pride or glory) is not a poison to shy away from. We need to approach it with accuracy. It must be grounded in truth, or the whole pursuit will be out of whack.

Too often, we neuter our passions, muffle our calling, and silence our character because we fear pride. We want to look humble rather than being humble. Shying from God's calling in our lives and the part we must play in the Kingdom is a kind of blasphemy, stifling the image of God within us. Humility is not about eradicating the self. It is about placing the self in the proper context. It is about seeking the truth about who we are and considering who God is. Pursuing truth is a noble act of humility.