And all of you, clothe yourselves in humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.  1 Peter 5:5b (NAS)

Humility may not be the most sought offer character quality, but it is an essential virtue for God’s people, and one continually modeled by Jesus Himself. He humbled Himself to be born in the likeness of man, not for His own sake, but ours. Following His example, we are to submit to the authority of God and regard the needs of others as more important than our own. But pride is a problem- we are often self-focused, looking out for our own best interests, and God abhors pride. So how do we accomplish this paradigm shift within ourselves? You can’t just try harder to be humble. The crucial point is to trust Christ, who was humbled on your behalf and allows His humility to be credited to you. This is grace indeed.

Dear Lord,

I know I’m not worthy of Your attention outside of what You have done for me. You, the perfect, sinless Son of God, accomplished my salvation by the ultimate degrading humility of the cross. So I trust You, Jesus, the only One who was ever truly humble, to show me the way. You paid a terrible price for my sin of pride, and my heart’s cry is that I will never lose sight of that.

I love You, Lord,

Amen.