Humility, Insecurity and Arrogance

What is humility?

Humility is, I believe, the most important characteristic that a Christian should have.  There is no virtue more important than humility. 

Because all sin stems from pride; pride in thinking that we can do life ourselves apart from God, pride in thinking we are better than others so we treat them badly, and pride also in our insecurity.

I once heard that insecurity is actually a form of pride, but for some reason most people don't see it that way.  They think if they are insecure they are humble.

On the contrary, a healthy confidence is humble, because when someone is insecure is the focus not always on themselves?

Therefore, it is pride. 

The ideal would be to never think of ourselves, in a good way or a bad way, but to have our focus on others or God always. 

This is how Jesus functioned.  There is a popular phrase that asks what would Jesus do?  Jesus would not think about himself so much. lol :)

Jesus was either helping everyone around him, preaching to them, healing them, or he was alone in prayer with his father. 

Jesus never complained.  He never argued, unless it was part of his preaching and to prove a point. 

Jesus never said anything good or bad about himself.

He stated facts, like that he was the son of God, but he did not toot his own horn so to speak.  He did not try to puff himself up or get people to notice him.

Jesus did not care what people thought about him, thus his ability to call the Pharisees out so so so many times on their extreme hypocrisy.

Jesus feared God and God alone, not people.

Insecurity comes from fearing people more then we fear God.

Thus, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

And now what is arrogance?  Arrogance is actually insecurity in disguise.  It is insecurity with a mask on.  The most arrogant men or women that you see walking around, if you asked them how they really felt, what was really going on on the inside, they would tell you how much pain they actually have on the inside.  But they are running from it, hiding from it. 

The arrogance is just a show, a facade, a cover.  They don't want anyone to know how weak and small they really feel on the inside.

We all have some insecurity and we should, because we all sin every minute of every day. 

We should be insecure about our current state and the state of the world because we live in a fallen world.

It is this insecurity that causes us to cry out to God! 

The arrogant are simply running, hiding from themselves and others and God.  They do not want to admit they need any one's help.  I know this because that was me for a long, long time.  We get this way perhaps because we had our heart broken in the past or a parent abused or abandoned us.

There is always a reason for people's actions.

So the next time you encounter what you think to be an arrogant person, ask yourself what they actually might be feeling on the inside and feel compassion for them as Jesus did.

The primary adjective given for how Jesus felt about humanity was compassion.

May we grow more and more every day in our ability to feel compassion to others; for those who are hurting and needy and lonely and depressed. 

May God give us all eyes to see and ears to hear what he wants us to!  Amen! 

Grace and peace to you :)