My husband loves to play Devil’s Advocate. 

I learned early on that if I came to him complaining about a situation involving another person, he would usually ask me, “What was your part in it?” 

An annoying question when you want to play the Blame Game, but a question I soon learned was good for my soul. 

I was often quick to see the blame in others, but not so quick to see the blame in myself.

I married a wise man.

Over the years I learned to embrace this thinking, and I began to see things through this lens.  It changed the way I viewed every situation.

But the biggest change was in me.

And thank goodness, because humility had never been my strong point. 

As believers, we are called to live humbly before God and before others. 

When we don’t live humbly, we don’t think or look like Jesus. 

For that matter, without a humble heart, we cannot please God.

Because the opposite of humility is PRIDE.

Proverbs 16:18 issues a well-known warning:

Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. (NIV)

But nothing says it like the Contemporary English Version: – “Too much pride will destroy you.”

Think about that for a minute.

Pride is selfish, demanding, and stubborn.  It looks down on others.  And at its core, it believes that its way is better than God’s way. 

You and I both know that when we are caught up in a prideful moment, it’s not pretty.

These are the moments that divide us from the One who wants to work in our lives.

Because when we are steeped with pride, we don’t confess our wrongs, we don’t have an attitude of repentance, and we cannot fully turn toward Jesus.

Sometimes it is these moments of weakness that remind us that we are made of flesh.

And why we need a savior in the first place.

Most of us, as believers, strive to not allow pride to control the bulk of our thinking. 

We set Jesus’ life before us as our example of how to live.

But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t areas we hold onto or struggle to give over. 

I talk about this often, because it’s a struggle I am so very familiar with.

The only way to knock down pride is to embrace humility and fully trust God.

A humble heart will:

• Ask itself often if actions taken resemble the savior.  
• Weigh out motives.
• Ask for (and offer) forgiveness.
• Be deeply troubled by one’s own sin. 

James 4:6 settles the soul with a reminder that God is a generous God of grace and love:

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.

He knows our struggles, and what it takes to say, “I was wrong, and you were right.”  Or to say, “OK, Lord, I give up.  Let’s do it your way.”

He doesn’t expect that we will get it all right.  Instead, he gives us grace as we stumble our way toward him.

And THAT is what I love about my Jesus.

As we each walk our own journey toward a humble heart, let our words be those our Father longs to hear: “Less of me, oh God, and more of you.”