Master of Disguise

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition but humble yourself and consider others better than yourself.” Philippians 2:3

There is something inside me that is near but not dear to my heart. It is something that takes on many forms and leads me unknowingly into attitudes, words and actions that always end up unbecoming to myself. He is an intruder of my heart, mind and spirit and one whom is never invited but simply shows up at will. My intruder’s name is pride.

Pride sneaks into our lives in many different forms leaving it unable to recognize until the damage is done. God has spoken about pride in the Bible at great lengths and challenges us to develop the flipside of pride, which is humility. There are many benefits from a life of humility including the following as outlined in Psalm 138:6, Isaiah 57:15, Isaiah 66:2, James 4:6 and James 4:10 just to name a few. We all need a great deal of work on humility, and these verses are great starting points. To paraphrase, God promises to keep His eyes focused on the humble, to live within the heart of a humble person and to esteem the humble woman/man. The more we develop a humble heart the greater measure of grace we receive and He promises to always lift up the humble.

Humility is one of the most difficult attitudes to truly embrace for it requires the opposite of what most people display. There are few people who truly exemplify authentic humility such as Christ displayed. My grandmother was the essence of humility and always modeled this in her life. I didn’t have to look far to find humility in its truest form and as I live my life I try to measure my actions against how she would respond. I have a long way to go to attain the humility of my grandmother but with Christ in my heart He has the power, the desire and the same desired goal to reveal each face of pride that emerges in my life. Only through the eyes of Christ can we recognize the face of pride.