Daily Encouragement: Year 1, Day 23
Adapted from Handbook to Leadership
Personal Development: Humility
The high and lofty One who lives forever, whose name is holy, says He lives in a high place, but also with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit (Isaiah 57:15; 66:2). The Bible repeatedly emphasizes that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Those who are proud have an inappropriate and inflated view of themselves. They attribute their accomplishments to their own efforts and fail to acknowledge that everything they are and have comes directly from God’s hand.
One way to summarize the Bible’s message is that it is God telling us, “I am God, and you are not.” The quality of humility flows out of a proper assessment of ourselves before God. Moses was a powerful man, but he was also a humble man because he saw himself in the light of God and sought God’s honor and reputation, not his own. When people come to grips with their desperate need for the grace and mercy of God, they develop a teachable spirit, they seek wise counsel, and they are willing to be under authority.