What does it actually mean to be humble?
We usually think of humility as being modest, or not bragging about ourselves. But the Bible points to something deeper: seeing ourselves honestly, as people who are fallen and fully dependent on God. Jesus is the clearest picture of it: God Himself, taking on the nature of a servant, obedient all the way to the cross.
That’s a much bigger ask than just “don’t be arrogant.”
Where in your life has God asked you to practice real humility?
Fasting…
As one grows in truth one becomes more aware of who God is and who we are. This can only result in humility.
Php_2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Friends
While I appreciate that author Brannon Deibert took his definition for “humility” directly out of Merriam-Webster’s on-line dictionary, I think he would have arrived at a much more accurate exegetical understanding of how the Bible uses the term if he would have kept reading in the same Merriam-Webster article, all the way down to the “etymology” section, where he would have discovered this nugget:
FromMiddle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin humilis low, humble, from humus earth; akin to Greek chthōn earth, chamai on the ground.
When we see the English word “humble” used in its various forms in the Bible, it usually carries with it the idea to be afflicted, or oppressed (H:ānāh in Ex 10:3). It is used to indicate “submission” and even used to indicate being “raped" (humbled) in some translations (Gen 34:2 Darby). Most often the original word is translated :humble” when the author means poor, who are oppressed and afflicted, (H:ānāw). It is used of persons who are “low in rank” or position and of those who put themselves after others in importance (Job 24:4; Ps. 10:12, 17; 22:26&27).
Moses is a prototype of “a man who is humble before God and before other human beings by his character, (Num. 12:3), even though he was not poor or low in rank. Many places where some translators us the word Humble, others use the English word “low”, or “poor”. In our Greek scriptures, the word translated into Humble is often GK:tapeinóō, and literally means “low”. James uses this word when he translates Proverbs 3:34
“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)
Although modern parlance only thinks of humility as a lack of arrogance and pretention, or a demure personality, our Bible almost always uses the term to indicate one of lowly state, poverty, or little sociological worth. It is to this “lowly-in-heart” person, that God extends his unmerited favor.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
KP
Perhaps being humble means that our ego is never our prime motivator.