Humility, Not Pride

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"Dealing with Our Fear of Inadequacy"

"Humility"

"Humility: A Mom's Secret Weapon"

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Dannah Gresh: Did you ever hear about the turtle from Vermont that wanted to visit Florida? He came up with an ingenious way to get there.

Hi, and welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’re going to talk about the importance of humility instead of pride today.

Here’s what that smart (though proud) turtle did. He got together with his friends, the geese. He knew they flew to Florida every winter. So our not-so-humble turtle . . . can we give him a name? Tim the turtle? No, that’s too predictable. How about Speedy? There you go. 

So our not-so-humble friend, Speedy, managed to talk two of his goose friends into holding a piece of rope between them as they flew.  Speedy the turtle chomped onto the rope and hung—by his mouth!—between the geese as they flew. It worked wonderfully . . . until the fateful moment happened!

Someone on the ground saw them flying overhead. They said, “Wow, what a great idea! I wonder who thought of that?”

Our friend Speedy couldn’t resist the opportunity to give himself the credit, so he yelled, “I did!”

Let’s just say Speedy didn’t make it to Florida. His pride prevented it!

On a more serious note, this weekend we turn the corner into June. It’s a month that in recent years has been termed “pride month.” Of course, that label has a whole set of values attached to it—values that don’t line up with the Bible. 

But have you thought about how much emphasis in general is placed on pride, as though it were a good thing? It’s not! God actually says He’s opposed to the proud. He says He hates a haughty look. That one’s at the top of the list of seven things He hates. 

In fact, listen while I read Proverbs 16:5. It says, “Everyone with a proud heart is detestable to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.”

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not be fighting against God. I don’t want to be detestable to Him either. That’s something Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth will talk more about in a few minutes.

The opposite of pride, of course, is humility. My friends Erin Davis and Portia Collins talked about humility on our podcast Grounded. On that particular episode, they were joined by the founder of Every Life Ministries, Erica Wiggenhorn. Here’s Erin.

Erin Davis: So, we're gonna talk about insecurity and self-sufficiency, which I would like you to think about as two plants with the same root system. And the root system is pride. Spurgeon described pride as an “all-pervading sin.” And He also said that pride is a “sin with 1,000 lives; it seems impossible to kill it.” 

So, if we're making a connection between our insecurity, our imposter syndrome, our fear of inadequacy, and our pride, it does feel impossible to kill it. Is there any hope? I think there is. So, what is pride? The world is going to tell us that pride is actually a good thing. But pride is a preoccupation with ourselves. And that's a big deal. Because in our pride, we give ourselves the glory that only God deserves. 

I have developed a highly scientific pride test. Here's how it works. Take your two fingers, and put them on your neck. If you have a pulse, then you have a pride problem. It's just part of being people of the flesh. But there is an antidote: all is not lost, and the antidote to pride is humility. 

Here's what I've had to learn in my own life, insecurity is actually false humility. It's not true humility, even though we might be self-deprecating, even though we might be feeling bad about ourselves, even though we might be saying bad things about ourselves. That's not actually true humility. Why? Because we're still focused on ourselves. We're still thinking about what we lack, how we don't measure up, what's gonna happen if we get found out. And there's still that we, we, we, I, I, I that is the chorus of pride. 

So how can we be free from the all-pervading sin of pride? There's only one way, and it is the way that Moses ultimately chose as you read his story. We look to someone greater than ourselves. We look to Jesus. If you remember Moses’ story from Exodus 34, Moses was with God. He was so focused on God that when he came down from that encounter with God, he glowed. It freaked people out, he looked so different, because he had stopped looking inward. He had learned to look outward at God, and it transformed him. And so that is the only way I know to shake up the root of pride, which keeps wanting to burrow in our lives, and does seem to have 1,000 lives. Look at Jesus. 

There is one passage that the Lord has used to help me do this many, many times. In fact, there's a period of my life where I really looked at this passage. And it is seared in my mind from those early mornings in Revelation 4. I want you to grab your Bible. // let me pick it up at 7 because this is my favorite part, 7 and 8. 

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”

I just want to lay down flat on my face right there at that verse. But Portia pick it up with 9 and 10. And then Erica, finish it up with 11.

Portia Collins:

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

Erica Wiggenhorn:

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”

Erica: Beautiful, beautiful.

Erin: So beautiful. John can't describe it in human words. He's trying. He's grasping at these words in this picture of who Jesus really is. It does kill pride in us and therefore it kills insecurity, imposter syndrome, inadequacy, all of those things. 

Because as I look at this passage, the questions that bubble up for me, I'll say them rhetorically, but I do want you to wrestle with Him. Erin, where is your throne in this passage? Where is my crown? Who's worshiping Me in Revelation 4? And the answer is, this should actually give us great security, not insecurity. We are not even in the throne room. We are not the object of worship of these 24 Elders and these creatures. We're not even there. But we are deeply loved and treasured by this king in Revelation 4. 

So, what kills my pride, what kills my insecurity, what kills my self-sufficiency, what kills my comparison? It's not thinking less of myself, C.S. Lewis said this, “It's thinking of myself less, and not just thinking of myself less so that I disappear from my own mind. But it's thinking about Jesus more and more and more and more, and thinking of him as he truly is, which is this enthroned King.” 

So that's my hope for you this week, sisters. When insecurity bubbles up, that we will flip ourselves to Revelation 4, or anywhere else in Scripture, where we see the power of God, and that we'll think of him more and maybe glow like Moses did as a result.

Dannah: Wow, humility is not thinking of less of myself, it’s thinking of myself less. Good reminders there from my dear friend Erin Davis. If you’d like to listen to the entire episode of Grounded that came from you’ll find a link to it when you go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend, and select today’s program, called “Humility, Not Pride.”

June is sometimes referred to as “Pride Month,” and so we’re taking some time today to examine pride in general, along with what Erin called its “antidote,” humility. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has some warnings for us from the Bible about pride—warnings for us as individuals, and warnings for whole nations. Let’s listen.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: We can’t talk about humility without also talking about pride.

What is pride? P-R-I-D-E: what’s smack in the middle of that word? “I”—self-exaltation, self-importance, self-centeredness, self-seeking, self-protection. “The world revolves around me!” We see this from the time we’re born. You see it in babies. You thought that little baby you gave birth to, your first child, was going to be sweet and precious and just sanctified, coming out of the womb.

And you go, “Oh, no!” It doesn’t take long for you to realize that baby has drives and everything in that baby’s world centers around itself. Most of us spend the rest of our lives looking and acting like big babies! “I” . . . P-R-I-D-E. Pride is no small matter. The Scripture tells us how God views pride.

I want to just read some of those verses to kind of give us a sense of how important and significant pride is for us to deal with. 

The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,
and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled. (Isa. 2:11)

When pride comes, then comes disgrace. (Prov. 11:2)

The LORD tears down the house of the proud. (Prov. 15:25)

Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD;
be assured, he will not go unpunished. (Prov. 16:5)

Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Prov. 16:18)

Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
I will not endure. (Psalm 101:5)

The proud one shall stumble and fall,
with none to raise him up.” (Jer. 50:32)

Do you get the picture? Do you see how God can’t stand pride? Because what does it do? It tries to bring Him down, and God is high and lofty and holy. He will not be brought down. Now, let me just say, parenthetically, that what is true of individuals is also true of nations. 

You see an example of that in the little Old Testament book of Obadiah. Let me just read the first few verses of Obadiah (it’s just one little chapter, probably one page in your Bible), beginning in verse 1: “Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom . . .” God had a gripe with Edom because of the way the nation, the country, the city/state of Edom had treated His people.

There’s more of that in other parts of the Old Testament, but God says: 

Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground? Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there, I will bring you down," declares the Lord. (Ob. 2–4) 

People can’t afford to be proud, and nations can’t afford to be proud, because in the end God will bring down every person, thing, nation that exalts itself against Him.

Pride is destructive. It is deadly! It hurts us; it hurts our relationships—our relationships with God and with others. And so Peter says in 1 Peter 5:5:

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.

I know you got dressed this morning; you look great! I came with a couple options to wear for this session today. We have wardrobe. We get clothed before we go out. We clothe ourselves, but do you remember every day before you go out to clothe yourself with humility?

Listen, it doesn’t matter how beautiful the outfit you have is, how cool it is, how fashionable it is . . . or unfashionable for that matter! If you’re not clothed with humility, it doesn’t matter. And if you are clothed with humility, it doesn’t matter, also.

“Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another . . .” Why? “. . . for God opposes the proud.” Another translation says, “God resists the proud” (NKJV). 

That word “oppose” or “resist” is what God does to proud people. It’s a word that means, “to set oneself against.” It’s a military term. It means “to go to battle against.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want God to set Himself against me! I don’t want God to go to battle against me, because I can tell you who’s going to win that battle . . . and it’s not me! It’s like your little two-year-old you’re trying to get to eat something off his plate. And you say, “This child thinks he’s going to win.” And you realize, “This is the battle I’m going to win.”

We resist God, and sometimes I think we must look to God like that two-year-old having that temper tantrum. “I will not!” or “I will! I will have my way!” And God says, “Keep trying; keep fighting; keep screaming; keep beating the floor; keep pulling out your hair, but I’m going to win this one!” God is going to win because God goes to battle against those who are proud.

Imagine being opposed by Almighty God! Yet that’s exactly what happens when we’re proud. By refusing to humble ourselves, to admit our wrongdoing, to accept responsibility for our actions and our attitudes, we make God our adversary, our opponent.

Dannah: That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, helping us see the danger of pride. Let’s talk a little more about this concept of clothing ourselves in humility. 

The world around us is celebrating pride, but that’s not the way of Christ. 

Kristen Wetherell has spent some time thinking and writing about humility, especially as it applies to motherhood. She wrote a book titled Humble Moms: How the Work of Christ Sustains the Work of Motherhood. I had the chance to talk to her about this idea of humility and being a mom.

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Dannah: Take us to a time when you were just going through the motions of motherhood. You weren't enjoying it. You weren't loving it. You were doing all the right things as a mom, maybe. But was there ever a time when your heart wasn't into it? Please tell me the answer is yes and that I'm not the only one that has had an experience like this.

Kristen Wetherell: Sister, yes, the answer is yes. I mean, this whole week, we were all sick. And you can kind of hear it in my voice right now. I'm still recovering. But I mean, there is just nothing, I shouldn't say nothing . . . I'm also not great at sitting still. And that's something the Lord has really been helping me with. 

But, there are a few things more humbling than the Lord saying, “What's happening this week?” And we all just got really sick. Suddenly, all of your plans get cancelled. You can't cover up the insecurities of motherhood with playdates and other plans. You're in your house with your kids. You can't really see anybody because you don't want to share your germs. And it's winter in Illinois. While it's technically spring, it feels like winter still. And so, you can't really go outside. It's humbling, because it just feels like, “Lord, I don't want to do this. This is not what I want.”

Dannah: What an honest admission. 

Kristen: Yeah. There's just there's nothing wrong with turning on the TV when your kids are sick. But it's just so easy to do that.

Dannah: I understand. I have been there. Kristen, what's helpful for you when you get to moments like that? What helps you to address what's going on in your heart so that you can really enter into the fullness of motherhood?

Kristen: Well, you mentioned earlier Dannah. You said, what's the key to loving your kids? And we said, it's humility. But if the other women listening are like me, they wonder, Whoa, I don't have that. Like I don't. I don't have enough humility. So, the answer truly is union with Christ. Because He's the humble one. 

And so, I'd love to just encourage us from God's Word here this morning from Philippians. 

Dannah: I would love that. 

Kristen: Paul's going to talk here about union with Jesus and how He is the humble one. So, Paul says,

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit [how do we do that?] but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:2–11)

So, I mean, we could unpack so many things in this wonderful passage. But I think the thing that I've been trudging up in my heart so much is that I don't have to conjure up humility on my own strength. It says, have this mind, which is yours in Christ Jesus. So, if, if we moms, if any of us have, have trusted in this work of Christ, that He truly humbled Himself, He became flesh in order to die in our place, so that our sins would be removed from us. So, we could have resurrection life.

If we're united to this Jesus, and His humility is ours, the very Spirit of Jesus lives in us. And so, I don't have to conjure up humility on my own. But I can ask Him and say, “Lord, You are the humble One. You have been beset with weakness. You probably lost Your voice at one point. You walked the earth.”

Dannah: Yeah, right. 

Kristen: So, not only know what it is to go through hardship and to hurt and to wonder what is happening around you, but You were willing to die, so that I would have hope, instead of my own perplexities and motherhood and challenges. It's really good news.

Dannah: A really helpful perspective there, from Kristen Wetherell. And you don’t have to be a mother to appreciate what she shared. It’s your union with Christ that helps you put on true humility. 

A really helpful perspective there from Kristen Wetherell. So here’s your assignment for the month of June. You’re going to hear a lot about pride. Every time you do, I want you to respond in your heart with humility. Rather than getting upset by wrong value systems, take those opportunities to pray. Ask God to give you a heart of compassion for a world that is so confused, so quick to attach their sense of identity to something fleeting and false. 

It will take humility on your part to pray for those who are pridefully flaunting their sin. But may our hearts break for them!

For more resources on God’s Design for Gender and Sexuality, go to this special page on our website. It’s ReviveOurHearts.com/Sexuality. Be sure to check it out.

You can find out more about Revive Our Hearts, including links to the full episodes you heard snippets of today, when you go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend, and click or tap on this episode. It’s called “Humility, Not Pride.”

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

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