When Humility Becomes Destructive

When you think of a humble person, what image comes to mind? The one in this post or someone whose head is always bowed and their fingers wrapped around each other and piously positioned in front of them? Well, these positions can depict submission, an essential component of humility.

But do you know you may have nursed the wrong definition of humility all your life?

While humility can take different shapes, there are certain dispositions we exhibit, which are meant to come off as humility but are not. Go ahead and find out those things you do in the name of humility that are nothing close to the attributes of this virtue.

When You Reject the Identity God Has Given You

If you’re already giving me that side eye and going like, ‘Meb, how can I possibly refuse an identity God gives me?’. I’ll show you how.

God has called you His child, righteous, holy, and peculiar. But you feel humble when you say and affirm things like ‘nobody is perfect’ and ‘we must work hard to be righteous and acceptable before God.’

My dear that is not humility at all. When you do that, you’re simply telling God you have a better identity than He has given you through Jesus Christ.

God has said you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. But you cower away from your God-given dreams and projects because you feel you do not have the intellect, resources, or mental capacity to handle them.

God has assured you that you have been healed. But you’re still keeping shut while the devil afflicts your body with all manner of sicknesses and diseases.

God has given you the power to trample on serpents, scorpions, and all the enemy’s power. But you run to the nearest prophet (like a helpless folk) at the slightest bark from the enemy.

Do you want to pause at this point to figure out where you’ve been haughty about the identity God has given you?

When You Feel You Must Work Hard to Please God

I know you have arguments. But please bring them up after you’ve read this entire piece.

God loves it when we pray, fast, give alms, study the Word, attend church, and be good as His children. But those are not the criteria to please God. You do those things to help your mind and body conform to the identity you receive when you accept the life of Christ.

The only thing you need to do to please God is to believe in His Son’s death, burial, and resurrection and live in His will for you. Any other thing you do would be your response to the new life you have received, not your payment for God’s smile toward you.

So, it isn’t humility to think that your long hours of prayers are what makes you commendable to God. That would mean that you’re putting your trust in your ability to work your way into God’s heart, not in the redemptive power of Christ to make you acceptable before God. You’re also telling God that the sacrifice of His Son wasn’t enough!

PS: I hope this helps you realize that running away from God when you fall into sin (because you think He would be fuming with anger against you) is also pride? It is also the devil trying to make you move further away from God – so that he can further oppress you.

If God gave His only Son for you while you were His enemy, how much more now that you are His child?

When You Let Others Trample On You

Some weird people will immediately term you as proud if you have the slightest confidence or self-esteem. But humility does not mean you throw away your confidence and self-esteem.

Being humble does not correspond to stooping low and allowing people to treat you like you’re worth nothing! Geez, you’re worth the blood of God’s only Son!!

I cannot count how often people have called me proud and arrogant simply because I did not let them continue doing stuff that either made me uncomfortable or played down my worth. But in the long run, these same people came to admire how I successfully keep drama and overwhelm away from my life by not letting people trample on me.

When you let people get comfortable with treating you like trash, you’ll be doing yourself disfavor because you will always need to be ‘trash’ for peace to reign when you’re with those people. And that, my darling, isn’t humility in any way. That is condescension!!

Learn to draw and maintain healthy boundaries in your relationship with people, and know that you’re not being proud when you do so.

Keeping Shut When You Need To Speak Up

The notion that a good Christian should keep quiet and never respond to people is wrong and unscriptural. When Jesus taught about turning the other cheek to our offenders, that scripture only implied that we should never tread the path of revenge. He never meant keeping shut or continually enabling people to keep up with habits that are destructive to you and themselves.

Sometimes, assertiveness can be a virtue to be coveted. This is especially true when it comes to matters about your faith, values, – and health!

Else, Jesus would have kept shut all the times the Pharisees tried to entrap Him or force their misunderstanding of the scriptures on Him. Instead, He would assertively point out their wrongs to them and then give them an accurate interpretation of scripture.

I hope this post helps you realize where you have been selling yourself short in the name of humility.

I’ll also love to hear your thoughts in the comment section.