The world makes it very easy to retain pride and to not stay humble. And one of the greatest temptations a person can face is to allow pride to fester in their lives. Pride is harmful and can destroy relationships, progress, and the people who hold onto pride. It is vital for the sake of your mental health, to let go of pride but that isn’t so easy. So, continue reading to find out what the Bible says about staying humble and how God wants us to forsake pride.
Why Pride is a Dangerous Game to Play
You must know that pride is a horrible and rigged game to play. You cannot expect to hold onto pride and success at the same time. You’ll have to drop one or the other in order to retain what’s more important to you. The reason why I talk about this topic is because its danger seems so subtle, but, it’s so damaging and destructive to one’s mental health in the long term.
Proverbs 16:18 World English Bible (WEB)
18 Pride goes before destruction,
and an arrogant spirit before a fall.
But, what’s pride? Pride is when a person sees himself/herself as better than others and sets his/her value on his/her accomplishments. And as you see in the above verse, God warns us through His Word that pride is a prerequisite for destruction and here’s why.
Firstly, pride disables a person’s ability to heed to wise counsel. What I mean by this is that when you decide to magnify yourself, it creates in you a newfound hatred towards the advice of others.
Ask yourself this question and be honest with yourself. Do you find it easy to reject advice which you know to be true but you reject it nevertheless? For your own sake, do what is wise, listen to what wisdom says.
Proverbs 11:2 World English Bible (WEB)
2 When pride comes, then comes shame,
but with humility comes wisdom.
Secondly, pride ruins relationships. People naturally hate to see pride in others. So, when the closest ones to you see that you don’t listen to them or that you demean others based on your status, this makes them upset.
Proverbs 29:23 World English Bible (WEB)
23 A man’s pride brings him low,
but one of lowly spirit gains honor.
And finally, pride distracts you from keeping your eyes on Jesus. When you focus on your efforts and yourself, this defeats the mission God has called you to. Jesus said that to follow Him, you must deny yourself. You must deny your pride to follow Jesus.
Luke 9:23 World English Bible (WEB)
23 He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me
Therefore, God does not like pride, people tend to not like pride, and you should not like pride because it does nothing but harm to yourself.
Staying Humble Before God
So, what is God saying in all of this, stay humble. Staying humble may be one of the most difficult things to do but it’s an essential step in everyone’s life. Because God makes it clear that if you hold onto how good you are and how successful you have made yourself, you leave no space for Him.
When one hosts pride and gives it a room to stay in his/her heart, it takes the whole space. It is a poison to your relationship with God.
Psalm 10:4 World English Bible (WEB)
4 The wicked, in the pride of his face,
has no room in his thoughts for God.
And God paid a very high price to establish that relationship with you by coming in the flesh as Jesus Christ and dying on your behalf so that you would not be condemned for your past sins. If you have not yet entered that relationship with God, then accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour which I talk more about in this post. So, don’t jeopardize your relationship with God by idolizing pride. Give glory to God and not yourself.
When you make lots of money or get good grades or win a friendly competition, stay humble and give credit to God in Christ Jesus. In everything, do not puff up yourself and how you did it but give glory to Jesus as He empowers you with the grace to live your life.
1 Corinthians 10:31 World English Bible (WEB)
31 Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
The bottom line is to not stand in His way by living in pride but stand with Him as you stand with His humility.
James 4:6 World English Bible (WEB)
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Staying Humble Before Others
Furthermore, the Bible wants us to be humble even when we deal with people. Jesus demonstrated humility and stressed on the importance of staying humble. There’s a beauty to when you see someone who is humble. And I believe that humility is one of the reasons why Jesus is so beautiful in His personality.
Before Jesus went to bear the sins of mankind, He dealt with the issue of pride. He washed the feet of his disciples as if He was a servant and then He said something phenomenal!
John 13:14-17 World English Bible (WEB)
14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should also do as I have done to you. 16 Most certainly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his lord, neither is one who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Now, first get what God is not saying here. He is not commanding us to wash the feet of people, otherwise, the epistles and the letters from the apostles would have stressed on the practice of washing the feet of others. There’s no harm in washing the feet of others but the point Jesus was getting across was to be humble.
He gave us an example to be humble and He showed us that when we are humble with each other, there is a special blessing for that.
How to stay humble? It’s simple, surrender your pride to God and whenever you do something successfully, give the glory to God. When you deal with people, ask God for the grace to see them as He sees them and recognize that the same God who knitted you in the womb has knit them, too. Ask Jesus for the grace to love others and when you love others, pride will have no open door to enter your heart.
1 Peter 4:10 World English Bible (WEB)
10 As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another, as good managers of the grace of God in its various forms.
Use His gift of grace to stay humble and enjoy your life with Jesus.
By Andre Wijesekera