Why is Humility Essential For a Transformed Life?

In our self-help society, the conventional wisdom is that you must control every aspect of your life to find success and happiness. What a shock, then, when so many people finally achieve the career goals they have worked so hard for over the years only to discover that the attainment of their goals didn’t bring them the happiness they anticipated.

Could the dissatisfaction be because our definition of success is faulty? Would we find true happiness in success if we evolved from a self-centered, worldly view of success to one that is more God-centered?

Living in a culture that worships at the altar of money, people can find it difficult to view success with God at the center. This is a critical point to fully comprehend, however. What God will reveal to us, if we listen to Him, is that true success is to love Him and to love others as He loves them. Success for a Christian is glorifying His life by the way we are living ours.

It can seem counterintuitive in modern Western culture to believe that by yielding to God, we can actually achieve greater success. The more control we give Him, the more He rewards us. If we listen to Him, He will show us that the only way to achieve this type of success is through humility. Humility is somewhat difficult to learn and to define, but when we see it in someone else’s life, we know it instantly. They live for the Lord and not for themselves.

To think about how to live in humility, one could think about the humility of a child. With that type of humility, we will be filled with child-like enthusiasm and be eager to be led and instructed by the Lord. With such an attitude, we will be teachable, moldable, and willing to change.

Humility is what brings the right balance into our lives. Instead of thinking that we can handle things without God, or feeling unworthy to walk with Him, we recognize that our life in Him is all His grace. When we have that right focus we are yielded to the Spirit and walking in a right relationship with God, and in turn, we grow more in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus.

A good way to think of it is to imagine God holding your hand, teaching you His ways as you walk beside Him. It takes the humility of a child to not get ahead of the Lord and to listen and to trust Him to set the right pace. It also takes humility not to lag behind Him and to remember that in His grace, He forgives our unfaithfulness and even forgets our transgressions as we come back to Him, and allow Him to continue to lead, guide, and direct us. God recognizes that this childlike quality of humility is not possible for us to develop on our own.

When our hearts are hardened by our sinful reactions to life’s circumstances, we forget how to accept God’s helping hand. Yet the Lord welcomes us in our sorrow and repentance with open arms of love, and bestows upon us all the blessings reserved for His children. Once you have put your faith in Jesus as Lord, He is there to teach you what it means to live a life of humility as you purpose yourself to let Him take the wheel of your life.

If you are finding that despite your efforts to control every aspect of your life, you are not finding the happiness and peace you seek, the answer can be found in learning humility. By opening your heart to Jesus and walking with Him, and by turning your life over to Him, you can reach heights of success you never imagined.