Society tells you that if you don’t promote yourself, then you will get nowhere in life. After all, if you don’t speak up, then others will not know of your achievements or your areas of strengths. If taken to the extreme, in the process of telling others your strengths and accomplishments, you come across as arrogant and egotistical. There is a definite time for accurately explaining one’s strong points, like during a job interview, but most people that like to talk about themselves brag too much.
A young man once received a medal from an organization which used very extravagant language in extolling his accomplishments. Jubilantly, the prize winner proudly repeated the words to his wife. Then he asked, “How many great men are there in the world today?” His wife thought for a minute and then wisely said, “One less than you think!” One character trait that everyone needs to employ more these days is the quality of humility.
If you remember the Lord Jesus when He talked about Himself, He described Himself as being “gentle and humble in heart” (Matt. 11:29). Since Jesus is your role model, then you should be a humble person also. To make sure that you model humility in your life, the Lord spoke through Paul when he wrote, “…and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). Here God commands believers to communicate with one another in such a way that that humility, not boasting, is the primary way of conversing. Notice why Scripture makes this command, because God actually works against those that are proud. Scripture does not stop there, but goes on to add, “but gives grace to the humble.” You and I need all the grace that we can get, so a sure-fire way of getting it is by being a person of humility. This may put you in last place in life from your perspective, but what did our Lord Jesus say? Something about the last shall be first. Be humble and let the Lord exalt you at the proper time!
