Abiding in Humility

Pride is believing that you can accomplish anything apart from God or to value your opinion or others above God’s. Pride has always been something that I personally struggled with over the years. I believed in God’s sovereignty, but I really like the idea of doing things on my own. I like being “independent,” and being able to do things my way. The only problem with that is God never asked me, or anyone else for that matter, to do anything apart from him. He actually told us to do the opposite: to abide in him.

One of the lies we have to fight in American culture is the idea of self-sufficiency. Pride can look one of two ways. One: we think we can do it all, so we pray prayers that we can accomplish apart from God. I believe all prayers are powerful, but if you pray things you can do without God, what’s the point? If you could do it all, you wouldn’t need God to show up. Even if you could do something good apart from God, why would you want to? Prayer is an opportunity to see the kingdom of God come to Earth. The only one that can bring the kingdom here is God. Second: you pray for everything else except for you and your relationship with God, because you don’t believe what God has to say about you. Self-deprecation is not holy. The most humble thing we can do is believe what God says about us. It is actually prideful to speak unkind things over yourself, because that is elevating your opinion over what God has already spoken. We HAVE to deal with these two roots of pride. God has so much better for you.
 
The only things that matter in life are God and people. We give our entire lives to the one who gives life. Pride keeps us from the one who gives life. The only way to try to eliminate pride is to get in the presence of God. Prayer is the cornerstone of walking with and abiding in Jesus. Prayer connects your heart to the Father’s, but if you don’t believe you need to depend on Jesus, you don’t think you have a need for a daily prayer life. Pride gets in the way, because there is nothing glamorous about praying. There’s no immediate satisfaction other than the joy of being with the Lord. In fact, if you try to glamorize it, Jesus said it devalues it. That is one of the ways he rebuked the Pharisees for praying lengthy prayers in front of everyone. You can’t post on Instagram about a life in the secret place with just God. You don’t talk about it in a blog post or on stage. It matters the most though, because those are the moments when the depths of your heart are revealed to God and vice versa.

“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” - Luke 14:11
 
A prideful heart is far from God, but a humble heart is near to him. As we take the lowest seat so others can take the highest, God will reveal the place he has given us in the world. He is deeply kind. He gives us a place we could never imagine when we humble ourselves before him in prayer. The goal isn’t to exalt ourselves though, it’s to know God and to be with him. If that was the end, that would be enough. A prideful heart doesn’t allow that though. God is more than enough, and our hearts come into alignment with that truth as we seek him more. A prideful heart seeks to make their own place while a humble heart knows they already have a place at the table with God.

One thing that will show you humility and teach you about prayer more quickly is to go someplace where you cannot change a thing for anyone. I went to Colorado with Wesley this summer. Great trip, I would highly recommend it to every person. We served these kids that absolutely broke my heart. Some of these kids came from pretty rough backgrounds. The absolute hardest thing I’ve ever gone through is knowing I could do nothing to make their situations better. All I could do was love them and give it all back to God. It was truly the most gut-wrenching and humbling moments of my life. It taught me that God was the only one that could change their situations, but he was inviting me to partner with his vision for them. In humbling ourselves with him, we get to see his heart for people, places, and situations that he has immense hope for. We get to be the hopeful ones who believe more than our abilities would ever lead us to.

Author | Cristina Rosiles