Pride to Humility

Proverbs 16:19 Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Where once "PRIDE" was recognized as a fatal flaw, in our day it come close to being celebrated. A lot of players have this line "I am the greatest" among all the players, I beat them, no one can beat me coz I am the greatest player of all time. A promoter was qouted, "I never cease to amaze my own self" - and then added, "I say that humbly." This statament, how could that come out if he were to say it with pride?

Matthew 23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

This is another area that I need to practice everyday in my spiritual life - but coz of pride I have the hard time to do and to show it. I always say, "what does it mean to "humble myself" in my everyday life? If I want to see myself "be proud" in front of people, I want to show people how smart I am - I want to show how great I am. Also, how can I humble myself if I am not willing to give up something that I know I don't have to but I have to.

Is this kind of attitude will please God? what would I do if not?

I do believe, in place of pride, Jesus invites us to a life of "humility" - "all who humble themselves will be exalted." But sometimes, we have become badly confused the word "humility". We know that we ought to become humble, but we're not sure if it is all for desirable. We're not even sure what a humble person is like?

"Humble yourself" in everyday life, if we take this seriously. Someone compliments us on the way we look. We are trying to live in God's kingdom and respond as Jesus would if he were in our place. What do we do?

Here are some points that we can do:

- Look down at the ground, shuffle our feet, and say, "I'm not really attractive. It's just that the light in here is pretty dim."

- Boldly speak the truth by saying, "I'm terribly interested in what you say. Tell me more, and let us celebrate this good news together.

- In Proverbs 11:22 As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion. --- this will pretty much remove any problem of receiving too many compliments.

- Be direct and to the point: " You are giving me a swelled head. Get behind me, satan."

- Smile, say "thank you", then be quiet.

Humility is not about convincing ourselves - or others, what we are unattractive or incompetent. It is not about "beating ourselves up", or trying to make ourselves nothing. If God wanted to make us nothing, he could have done it.

Humility has to do with total submission. It involves a healthy sefl-forgetfulness. We will know we have begun to make progress in humility when we find that we get so enabled by the Holy Spirit to live in the moment that we cease to be preoccupied with ourselves, one way or the other. When we are with others, we are truly with them, not wondering how they can be of benefit to us.

2 Chronicles 34:27 Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD.

I also believe that humility, if ever we could grow into it, would not be burden. It would be an immense gift. Humility is the freedom to stop trying to be what we're not, or pretending to be what we're not, and accepting our "appropriate smallness".

But how on earth can we pursue humility? We know that if we have so much pride, a possibility, pride is a persistent problem for us who strive for spiritual growth.

Sometimes, part of my weakness is "pride". When I am in a place that I notice certain things. Like, noticing people or watching people how they act unpleasant, or I see them often how they look like in a physical appearance "beauty or ugly" - from that moments, I find certain thoughts involuntarily running through my mind - by thinking, "How can people act like so unpolite or how people dress up like that if they don't look good on that dress? or How can people eat junk food, or eat that amount of food? Have they no discipline, no self-restraint? How they can treat their bodies this way? ---those kind of thoughts...that way, I thought it is not very pleasant to watch them. By comparing myself with them, and trying to see myself, trying to say, "I am good than her/him. Isn't it true?

Whether we admit it or not - we always get these thoughts even though - or perhaps more precisely, coz these people are doing the same thing we do, that we are not aware of it - or maybe we are aware of it, we just don't want to admit it that we are doing the same thing. Isn't it true again? (Yes, for me it is true)

Here is the problem: when we try to see good things in us to look ourselves good, we knew that we are intensely aware of it. And we tend to be aware of other people who aren't putting forth the same effort with their sloth - the result of all these is "pride", "comparison", "judgementalism", and I agree to this next one "lack of love".

Practicing "humility" is not easy to do. I do admit to myself sometimes that I can't just humble myself if I know I don't have to. But if we think about it, the example of humility is Jesus Christ - Jesus humbled Himself by taking the cross that He wasn't supposed to have it. A cross that meant for us, but instead He took it and He sacrificed Himself just to show how much He loves His people. Even though, He knew, how much sinned we had - but He never looked at that way - but He loved us instead.

John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.