When I was younger, I thought I had life all figured out. Looking back at my life, I can see that I was often foolish, in many ways. I knew I was "faking it" but I was also convinced that almost everyone else was too, and my pride helped me convince myself of it. I learned the wrong lesson that way: As long as you ACT confident, most people will either believe you or leave you alone. It wasn't until I started understanding how foolish I was that I started to grow into someone I always wanted to become.
Growth can't happen for the proud. Pride closes the door to both correction and God. Humility is the soil where real growth takes root. With soft hearts and open hands, humility allows God to shape us into something new. We have the chance to grow higher.
If you want the power to grow higher, you have to learn to lower yourself in humility.
Humility Leaves Room for Grace
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
—James 4:6
That verse is both a warning and a promise. Pride invites judgment, but humility finds mercy and help.
Growth is not just about what you can do. It's about what God can do in you. When you humble yourself, you create space for Him to work. His grace gives you the strength to face what you couldn’t face before. The transformed mind that comes from faith in His word empowers lasting change that your effort alone can’t produce.
Humility is more than self-deprecation. It’s the honest admission that you need God. That’s exactly where my growth began, and it's where anyone's growth can start.
Humility Makes You Teachable
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and humility comes before honor.”
—Proverbs 15:33
Wisdom begins with humility. If you want to be strong tomorrow, you must start by lowering yourself today.
Humility doesn’t mean thinking less of yourself—it means thinking about yourself less often. Life isn't about us. It's about God and His plan for us to be in service to Him. That means humility includes thinking about the needs of others before yourself, just like Jesus did.
When you walk in humility, you become:
- Easier to teach
- More open to feedback
- Quicker to repent
- Slower to defend your ego
- More ready to receive truth
And all of that leads to growth—because now, your heart is ready to learn.
Jesus, the Lowly
“And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
—Philippians 2:8
Jesus taught humility and modeled it perfectly for us. The King of all creation stooped to serve, suffered for others, and surrendered to the will of His Father. And because He humbled Himself, God exalted Him.
The same pattern applies to us. God lifts up the lowly. He fills the hungry. He uses the broken and the willing—not the proud and self-sufficient.
Final Thought: Start Lower to Grow Higher
Learning humility was difficult for me. I sometimes even confused it with depression. But when I started to understand that humility was thinking about myself less and others more, it helped me to see a path forward with it.
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