Humility and pride revisited...

[Barb]

Just before the old place went over the river so to speak, someone...I think it was Prax, started a thread on the subject of humility and pride. As I recall, it was still on page one, so I thought perhaps we could revisit this subject.

I will begin by rerunning a few quotes by the excellent book Sis. Felicity suggested to me a little over a year ago. The book is Seeking The Face Of God by Gary L. Thomas, and he writes of knowing God in a more perfect way. It is an excellent description of true inner holiness and humility and I highly recommend it.

Let us begin with an excerpt for your discussion and consideration...

He quotes the 15th century philosopher, Blaise Pascal, Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because He shows us both God and our own wretchedness.

Mr. Thomas writes, We can pretend we are humble just as we can pretend we are holy, but true humility cannot be manufactured. Humility is rooted in truth, not pretense. Therefore, we need an objective standard by which we can judge ourselves, or better, allow God to judge us...

Humility is at root a celebration of our freedom in Christ; we are freed from having to make a certain impression or create a false front. Humility places within us a desire for people to know us as we are, not as we hope to be and not as we think they want us to be or even as we think we should be. Real growth cannot begin until we come to this point.