Be Still And Know

Proverbs 29:23 Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honour. William Hazlitt, the brilliant 19th-century writer, put his finger on the problem with pride when he observed that it “erects a little kingdom of its own, and acts as sovereign in it”. When we are puffed up with pride, we take total charge and push God out, together with everyone else. The proud person might look impressive for a while but, as the writer of Proverbs observes, sooner or later they end in humiliation. The alternative way is humility. This is the key to all of God’s blessings, so we need to be absolutely clear what it is. The trouble with the word humility is that we often confuse it with false humility, which is horribly unattractive. Anyone who claims to be humble is almost certainly false. The humble person doesn’t expend energy thinking about themselves, and if they were ever identified as being humble, they would deny it. True humility is not about denying that we have gifts and abilities, but having a readiness to a