Choosing Humility

 

We all know them, those people full of talk but never do anything. That is one way to describe arrogance. Another is a sort of false pride that thinks we are good at something but are mediocre at best. Arrogant people can also be filled with a sense of self-importance that makes them the authority on everything to the point that they disregard all other ideas and opinions. Arrogance is an attitude of deep pride, but also an action, usually more verbal than doing much of anything else. Arrogance thinks it knows all and therefore listens to no one. It has no place in those who belong to Christ and in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant. (1 Corinthians 13:4)

In reviewing my attitudes from past days, arrogance also thinks I am smarter than people of other nationalities, know more than the average person does, can discern truth from error that other people miss, am better at many skills . . . and the list goes on. God had much to do to change such foolishness (and even that statement smacks of arrogance).

In that vein, what puts arrogance out of a person? Paul wrote a strong rebuke to the Corinthian Christians. It may have helped. He said to them who thought they knew it all:

Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. (1 Corinthians 4:18–20)

They had a sinful person in their midst and rather than dealing with that sin, they were proud of their tolerance. Paul said to them, “And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:2)

This says such an attitude can be subtle. It also blinds people to reality. The OT authors knew better. Many of them denounced arrogant attitudes and actions. One of them said:

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. (Malachi 4:1)

It would be arrogant of me to think that this is happening all over the world right now as we see thousands affected by wildfires. God knows the human heart and has pity on the helpless. Yet we are seeing the horror of destruction by fire and aware that God can use it — either to judge or to draw people to Himself. I cannot know what He is doing, only that He does not want any arrogance in my heart.

He uses another way to humble me — my failure to live as I know I should, failure to be loving to others, failure to deal with my own sin, feeling my weakness and inability and gasping for His help when He seems to have abandoned me. I know He never does that, but He lets me know what my life would be like without Him. I have no excuse for pride and arrogance.

PRAY: Today is a weekly prayer day with a group of women who are learning to care deeply about one another’s concerns and are praying daily for expressed needs. We struggle with temptation, especially the temptation to quit praying. Jesus, our enemy does not like it, but You have defeated Satan and given us overcoming power, not so we can boast but so we can trust You with everything. I need a strong dose of that trust today. Living in the power of love brings out how unable I am to do this without Your incredible Spirit to fill and guide me, and keep me from the sin of arrogance.

PONDER: Consider what Proverbs 8:13; 11:2; and 29:23 say about the outcome of pride and the value of humility.