It is difficult to recognize the need for humility. If you work hard and accomplish tasks or goals, the natural response is to take credit for what has been done. After creating a painting, it is easy to think "Look at that beautiful painting! I'm very proud of what I have accomplished," but the humble response would be to recognize and credit God for everything I accomplish. God is the ultimate source of everything good (James 1:17). We need to keep that in mind.
Pride often blocks our minds from realizing our need for humility. It's a paradox, but here is the best way I can explain it: We always need to be humble. The way of the world (or the natural way, for those who are not saved) is to take pride in what they accomplish and thrive on the results of what they do. Whenever we allow ourselves to think that anything we do is a result of our own work and not a result of God, we are being proud and not being humble (they are diametrically opposed). Although we have a great opportunity to display humility because of what God has accomplished through us, we cannot see that because our pride is keeping us from seeing that opportunity.
It seems to me that the typical way the Lord uses to remove pride from blinding us to our need for humility is to send a failure or crisis (whether mild, moderate, or extreme) in our life. By failing, we either see that we cannot accomplish what we wanted to do (or anything, for that matter) on our own, or we become more deeply entrenched in our pride and try to accomplish more on our own (which is impossible). By experiencing a crisis, we either see that God is in control and we are not, blame God for what has happened (because we perceive that He does not have our best interest in mind), feel sorry for ourselves because with think we have been treated unjustly (a more hidden kind of pride, in my opinion), or we consider ourselves the unfortunate victims of an unexpected incident (which does not take into effect that God has a plan and purpose for our lives).
I don't write this post to preach to the world about how proud they are and how much they need to change; I write it because pride and arrogance are some of my biggest weaknesses and I want to share what God has taught me. The best way I can perceive to keep pride from my life and keep humility in is to constantly remind myself that I can do nothing on my own and that God should be praised and credited for everything He has done...a simple lesson that is difficult to apply. I hope and pray that you may learn the lesson He has in store for you concerning humility.
