Haughtiness and pride versus humility and meekness – What is winning?

 

An Emoji Devotions Sat 12th June 2021

Topic: Haughtiness and pride versus humility and meekness – What is winning? 

By H.U Wenger

Highlights:   Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud. (Proverbs 16: 18 – 19)

The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. (Proverbs 16:5)

In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (1. Peter 5: 6) 

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

I never considered myself as proud or haughty and I guess that most people who know me would agree to that statement.

 Publicly I gave myself as not judgmental and I would rather defend someone and tell the good sides of them, than to judge them according to my thinking. After all, a good pastor has to be merciful and compassionate and I felt quite good about myself. Standing before the Lord, however, he convicted me of pride and haughtiness, and of being merciless and highly judgmental.  How could that possibly be? What did I do wrong? Because I had different congregations, it was already a long time, since I was sitting under the preaching of somebody else and I found myself sitting there with a spirit of critique. I found his introduction pitiful, the points he was making, I perceived as week and his altar call as rather clumsy. In a whole, my judgement was that I could have made a better preaching to the same theme without any preparation. Although I did never speak it out, the Lord showed to me, how arrogant and proud I was, looking down on others with internal disdain. He reminded me that it is alone his gift to me that gives me an advantage over the brother I was internally belittling. I repented and the Lord began to show me a multitude of instances in which I did not honor the others above myself according to Romans 12:10 or Philippians 2:3 – 4. In fact, the Lord began to show to me how I was constantly judging others in traffic and in many other domains of my life. I was absolutely chocked and my satisfaction with myself was totally shattered. I found myself exactly as one of those, who see the speck in the eyes of others without the awareness of the plank in my own eyes. I am still learning to grow in humbleness. 

Humility and meekness are the character traits of Jesus in his life on earth and we are to follow his footprints. His character is winning, whereas haughtiness and pride can so deceive us that we even might endanger our salvation. In any case it will be punished according to Proverbs, 16:5. 

Brothers and Sisters let us fight to show the world around us, how humble and meek our Lord Jesus Christ is and how much he invites everybody to learn from him to find peace and rest for our souls.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, let me be humble, so that you can show me your favor. Please train me to love and live the same way you loved and lived your life among us.