Famed intellectual C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity. You may remember I said that the first step towards humility was to realize that one is proud. I want to add now that the next step is to make some serious attempt to practice. A week is not enough. Things often go well for the first week. Try six weeks. By that time, having, as far as one can see, fallen back completely or even fallen lower than the point from which one began, you will have discovered some truths about yourself.
No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea that is current is that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the Russian army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only One who never yielded to temptation, is also the only One who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.
You might wonder why I’m spending so much capital on humility. If we look at the converse of humility, (pride), we realize that it was pride that changed angels into demons and causes Satan to fall from heaven; it is humility that makes men as angels. Humility is the foundation of all virtues. The Bible describes humility as meekness, lowliness, and absence of self.
When we come to Christ as sinners, we must come in humility. We acknowledge that we are paupers and beggars who come with nothing to offer Him but our sin and our need for salvation. We recognize our lack of merit and our complete inability to save ourselves. This is the antithesis of Satan’s creed. He said he is going to be like God, but he is nothing more or less than a cheap imitation.
All of us probably dream about having high self-control as it is one of the top keys to success. For the reason that humble people place less importance on their selves, they often exhibit high self-control. This can probably be explained by the fact that humble people tend to know their limits.
Interesting that humility is often misunderstood. It is sometimes considered a low opinion of one’s worth and abilities. However, theologians and psychologists suggest a different opinion. They claim that humble people are not self-deprecating but rather accurate in the way they regard themselves. This kind of accurate attitude to your own self helps to estimate what are your true talents and limits. While the line between being humble and having low self-esteem is very thin, a true humility gives you a more realistic understanding of your capabilities and strengths and avoid failures and false expectations.
1 Peter 5:5
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”.