Proverbs 22:4 (NIV) Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life.

There was a time when I was on staff at a church and the leadership at the church decided that the staff needed to be evaluated every year or so, so they created a list of questions to answer on an evaluation form. Each staff member was to answer the questions as honestly as possible. I received mine and I set off to answer the questions as best I could. I was doing fine until I reached a certain question, which was the following: from 1 to 10 (1 being the lowest and 10 the highest), how would you rate your humility? To be honest, it made me laugh. That’s not a question that anyone is qualified to answer. If you rate yourself a 10 in humility, that would make you conceited. If you are humble and you know you are, that’s proof that you’re not. But if you rate yourself a 1, then that’s false humility. That would indicate that you are prideful and prideful people are not aware of the fact that they are prideful. Humility is a characteristic for others to measure in you, not for you to measure or even be conscious of in yourself.

In God’s economy, humility is a valuable trait. The Word of God says that the Lord resists the proud but that He shows favor to the humble (James 4:6) and that He is attracted to a humble and contrite heart (Isaiah 66:2). Jesus, in an amazing declaration about Himself, said that it was safe to come to Him because He is gentle and humble in heart (Matthew 11:29). What’s amazing about that declaration is the thought that God is humble. That’s not how we usually view God, but when you see the picture of Jesus that the gospels paint, that is exactly what He is along with every other divine trait that make up who He is. That’s why He values humility in us so much. The Lord, who is perfect, is perfect in humility, which is a trait that is very attractive when you see it in someone. But to gain humility is so terribly difficult for us as human beings because we are steeped with the sin of pride at birth. The road to humility is very challenging and tricky for us.

But it turns out that there is a way that you can ensure humility in your life, and the verse above reveals what it is. Having a healthy dose of the fear of the Lord will absolutely lead you on humility’s path. It also leads to other good things such as wisdom, which the Word of God says is where wisdom begins (Proverbs 9:10). The fear of the Lord is the revelation of the glory and worth of God in your heart. When you see Him as the almighty, supreme and everlasting One who made the heavens and the earth and who gave you the very breath that is in your lungs, that keeps your sinful pride in check and leads you to bowing in reverence to Him. When you experience the power of God along with the love of God in your heart, your heart dares not lift itself to match or to attempt to rise above His sovereignty as Satan tried to do as well as those who are under his control. That’s exactly what made Adam and Eve disobey God. It was Satan’s lie that they would be like God that made them succumb to the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit that they thought would make them equal to God. That’s why we need to live in the atmosphere of the presence of God, loving Him and fearing Him because when we do, true humility will be the result. There can be no boasting in that humility because it comes from the true knowledge of our lowly estate in contrast to the awesome glory of God. Ensure that humility is a trait that you have by having in mind the awesomeness of who God is by staying connected with Him at all times. Who knows, perhaps your humility might even reach to be a 10.

Pastor Joey Vazquez