Since the beginning of my adolescence I have always fought my ego and I still fight against it today! Being humble is one of my biggest difficulties! Realizing that nothing is about me, but about Jesus Christ, is one of my daily struggles!
I am very grateful to God for showing me, through the Bible, through people or in prayer, where I am commiting mistakes and what I should do. By His grace, I have learned a lot about humility.
My spiritual leader has taught me that from the moment we become subject to God and our brothers, we learn much more and our wisdom grows.
I still have a lot to learn about humility, but I would like to share with you what I have learned!
What is Humility?
According to the dictionary, humility comes from Latin humilitas, and it is the virtue of knowing your own limitations and weaknesses and acting accordingly. It refers to the quality of those who do not try to project themselves on other people, nor show themselves to be superior to them.
Therefore, we can see that humility is a good thing and helps in the order of society, avoiding intrigues and discussions.
But the Word of God goes deeper when it comes to humility and brings us a different perspective from what society says …
What does the Bible say about it?
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vanity, but humbly consider others superior to yourself.”
Philippians 2: 3
The Bible shows us, through several passages, that we need to be humble. It shows us that we must submit to each other and understand that we are no better than anyone else.
Furthermore, it shows us that humility has good consequences for our lives and a better communion / harmony with the people around us!
Why be humble?
Okay, we’ve seen that humility is biblical and brings us good things. But why should we be humble?
The first reason we’ve talked about before: humility is biblical. The Bible is the Word of God and, what is contained in it, must be followed by those who love Him. Therefore, if we are children of God and followers of Christ, we must do what His word teaches us.
The second reason is: if we aim at our lives to be like Christ, we must be like Him (Philippians 2: 5-8). And since Christ is the greatest example of humility in existence, we must imitate him.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:5-8
How to practice humility?
Now, I am going to give you some tips that have helped me a lot to implement humility more and more in my life:
1 – Thank
Gratitude and humility go together. We need to be thankful to God and people, for everything! When we have humility in our hearts, we always remember that it was God who did everything in our lives and we thank Him.
2 – Apologize
There is a lot of humility in recognizing when we make mistakes. Therefore, we need to recognize our mistakes and try to fix situations. Even when we think we are right! Christ tells us to turn the other cheek (Luke 6:29), so even when we think we are right, we must let go of our ego and be reconciled to people.
3 – Don’t look for glory
This is a great difficulty of mine! We must not do things to be seen (Matthew 6: 1-6 and 16-18), but for Christ to be seen through us.
4 – Love, Respect and Serve
When humility is in our hearts, we want to be with other people, listen to their pain and help in what we can. This becomes something natural. We come to respect their difficulties, fears and have compassion for others.
Don’t let humility die in you. Be humble as Christ was and love as He loved.
Grace and peace.
