Genuine humility provides hope inspired leadership as it breathes life into the very core of our being as people. At its root, humility is walking in the grace of the Lord. The question becomes, “How do we cultivate humility?”

“Genuine humility, as with genuine faith, is not self-help or a life hack, but a response to divine initiative and help.” ~David Mathis

Let us explore how to cultivate humility through answering a couple of questions.

Question #1 How do we humble ourselves?

Question #2 What is the power of humility?

Question #1 How Do We Humble Ourselves?

In Humbled: Welcoming the Uncomfortable Work of God, David Mathis asks the question, “How do we humble ourselves? Will we humble ourselves and embrace His humbling hand or will we try to fight back? Will we soften to Him in humility or harden with pride?”

“Humility embraces the reality that I am not God. Pride led to humanity’s fall when Adam and Eve desired to ‘be like God’ (Genesis 3:5).” ~David Mathis

God initiates opportunities for us to humble ourselves before Him. The Bible says to:

• Seek humility ~Zephaniah 2:3
• Put on humility ~Colossians 3:12
• Have a humble mind ~1 Peter 3:8
• Clothe ourselves with humility ~1 Peter 5:5

God says if we humble ourselves and pray…we will be heard, receive His grace and forgiveness, and our land will be healed:

• Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you ~James 4:10
• God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble ~James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5
• If My people…humble themselves, pray, seek My face, turn from wickedness, I will hear, forgive their sins, and heal their land ~2 Chronicles 7:14

When the next disruption, challenge or trial comes our way, we can bow down in humility before our Creator, Redeemer and Friend or we can blow up with pride, offense and defensiveness. We choose humility or pride.

“Humility is a posture of soul and body and life that acknowledges and embraces the goodness of God and the humanness of self.” ~David Mathis

“Self-humbling requires turning from the path of pride, spiritual apathy, and self-reliance that is leading to destruction, and turning to the face of God in prayer. For those under the delusion that we are strong, prayer makes little sense, especially as a pattern of life. We humble ourselves in prayer when we appeal to God for what is plainly beyond our ability to produce.

“Prayer and fasting declares, “God, You are even more important than something as basic as daily bread.’ Fasting is an act of self-humbling by declaring our need to God, and by allowing ourselves to see afresh how weak we really are. Humble people fast because they know they are weak, and God is strong. They know they are desperate, and God is ready to extend His great mercy.”

How do we humble ourselves? We acknowledge the reality that we are not God.

How do we cultivate humility? We can cultivate humility by “humbling ourselves under the authority of God’s Word, by obeying His words, and by coming desperately to Him in prayer and in fasting.”

“Every new morning presents a fresh opportunity to bend our hearts toward humility – or to re-calcify them in our pride. We can begin each day with the sound of God’s voice, the whispers of our own voice, or the words of someone else.” ~David Mathis

Question #2 What is the Power of Humility?

In The Power of Humility – Living Like Jesus, R.T. Kendall approaches being the writer of a book on humility with humor. I appreciate Kendall’s working title, Pride – The Sin No One Admits To, and his joke of the new title being, Humility – And How I Attained It. All joking aside, though Kendall says pride is not always a sin, he quickly states the Bible never has anything good to say about it.

“Pride is always listed with the worst of sins – sexual immorality, theft, murder, wickedness, deceit, envy, slander, pride…’ (Mark 7:21-22). In the last days, Paul says, ‘people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud…’ (2 Timothy 3:2).”

“Pride in Scripture is always to be avoided; it is disdained. God hates pride. ‘There are six things God hates…a proud look.’ (Proverbs 6) and ‘whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.’ (Psalm 101:5). Pride is the opposite of humility, modesty, and meekness.”

Kendall lists different kinds of pride:

• Social pride – keeping up with the Joneses
• Spiritual pride – self-righteousness
• Financial pride – impressing others with one’s wealth
• Political pride – being sure to be politically correct
• Sexual pride – always needing to attract the opposite sex
• Cultural pride – impressing people with your love of the arts
• Intellectual pride – always needing to prove how much you know and how intelligent you are
• Pride of your good looks – overly concerned with appearance in dress, figure, or hair
• National pride – sometimes being overly patriotic
• Racial pride – proud of the color of your skin
• Theological pride – superior feelings because of their rightness of doctrine
• Prophetic pride – gloating over prophetic successes

Kendall exposes our pettiness, “Pride is usually the true explanation why we get our feelings hurt, why we hate being passed over for the wonderful invitation, why we feel rejection, why we get into trouble, why we won’t admit to a mistake, why we want to be seen with certain people, why we are afraid we won’t get credit for what we did, why we stay angry, and yes, why we are jealous. Pride is at the bottom of envy and jealousy. Pride and jealousy are first cousins within this dysfunctional family called the human race.”

After looking at pride, we ask ourselves, “What is the power of humility?”

“What matters most of all? There is one thing – and one thing alone – that ultimately matters: God’s opinion of you and me.” ~R.T. Kendall

What is the power of humility? The power of humility is recognizing we are nothing in and of ourselves.

Paul asked the Corinthians, “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?’ (1 Corinthians 4:7) Everything we are is by the grace of God. ‘There is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace’ (Romans 11:5-6). The point of being chosen by grace is that we have no grounds for boasting. ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast’ (Ephesians 2:8-9).”

How do we cultivate humility? We acknowledge we are nothing in and of ourselves except by the grace of God and we walk in the healthy fear of God.

“Pride, in its simplest form, boils down to the lack of the fear of God. When working for God becomes more important than our relationship with God, we have lost the fear of God.”

“When we identify more in our giftings and talents than in the God who gave them, we have lost the far of God. When we believe that the gifting from God is more important than the character of God, we have lost the fear of God.”

“And sadly, when we no longer feel the need to pray, meditate on His Word, and fill our hearts with His presence and intimacy, we have lost the fear of God.” ~John Paul Jackson

As I continue learning about humility and the role it plays in leadership, I wonder, “How has our culture moved so far from this much needed virtue?” I think all of our self-assertive training stomps the fire of humility until it is extinguished.

We must rekindle the fire of humility as it is vital to our survival as humans. We can do this by admitting we are not God, acknowledging we are nothing in and of ourselves except by the grace of God, and by choosing to walk in the healthy fear of God.

Recommendations:

Humility is the Foundation of Leadership – Knowing Our Identity is Crucial – Strength with Dignity

5 Ways to Overcome Our Fears – Strength with Dignity

References:

English Standard Version (ESV). The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV text edition: 2016. Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Kendall, R.T. The Power of Humility – Living Like Jesus. Narrated by Shaun Grindell. 5 hours 49 minutes.

Mathis, David. Humbled – Welcoming the Uncomfortable Work of God. Narrated by Josh Childs. 1 hour 58 minutes.

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