Humility #1
(Praying woman in Church of Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem)
Whenever I dedicate a child in our church family I write them a letter that concludes by asking them to look up James 4:6 when they get older. James 4:6 states, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” I feel this a foundational verse for living an authentic, God-infused, grace-filled, Spirit-empowered Christian life.
Our words “humility” and “humble” come from the Latin word humus, which means “earth” or “soil.” A humble heart is a heart that is “good soil”; a “proud” heart is a heart that is “hard soil.” In this regard Francis Frangipane, in The Three Battlegrounds, defines pride as “the armor of darkness.”
Note that “humility” does not mean weakness. And it has nothing to do with being humiliated. A lot of people get humiliated but never become humble. Humility, in a person, is a sign of strength. And God’s grace comes, therefore, to humble people precisely because their hearts are soft, good soil for God to plant his truths in.