Pride and Humility 

“Before disaster the heart is haughty, but before honor is humility.”  (Proverbs 18: 12) 

   We are prideful people; we look to receive credit for all we do.  And yet all we do is by the grace of God.  Pride says, “See what I did!” while humility says, “All by the grace of God.”

   Pride, as Proverbs reminds us, goes before the disaster.  Pride can only lead to sin because in pride we place ourselves above God, refusing to give credit to the one who has blessed us in our efforts.

   There is also false humility which is nothing more than a form of pride.  In false humility we belittle ourselves to others saying we are not worthy of their praise, while inside we are pleased with ourselves and loving the accolades.  We make it worse by saying to ourselves “see how humble I am” when in fact we have no humility at all.

   C. S. Lewis wrote, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”  When we give credit to God for whatever good we may do we are living in humility and humility is pleasing to God.  When we take full credit for whatever good we may have done, believing that we have done it solely on our own, we are prideful and headed for a great fall.