Day 7: Choosing Humility, Not Pride

Welcome to Day 7 of 21 Days to Strengthen Your Faith! Today, we are talking about how faith + humility are intrinsically related–and pride + works/Law/driving and striving are intrinsically related too! (Stay tuned for a Holy Spirit-led ouch moment, in a good way!) 🙂

In this series, we will examine one short Scripture passage each day.

Then, we will pray through it with a brief series of bullet-point prayers. Each day, our goal is to strengthen our faith by gaining greater revelation about the importance of faith in our lives, and how faith WORKS.

As you strengthen your faith each day, your confidence in God will grow–and you will also begin feeling more brave and willing to go on the great adventures God has for you!

Click here for the series table of contents, in which you can find all the articles in 21 Days to Strengthen Your Faith.

We have also recorded a short video devotional to go with each day’s Scripture verse. Please be sure to watch these videos for extra encouragement and inspiration in your faith journey!

Our key Scripture today is Habakkuk 2:4:

“Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 NKJV).

I know these Scriptures sound like they are all similar or even the same, but they aren’t exactly the same.

Each of these different Scriptures has facets that make them different from one another; facets that teach us more details about faith. And in this series, we are digging nuggets out of each one in order to strengthen our faith!

Remember that the way to get revelation about anything is to let the Holy Spirit speak to you as you meditate continually on His Word. Even when different Scriptures sound the same, or if it seems like we’re repeating the same points, just hang in there and keep looking at every facet of these different Scriptures, okay?

So let’s look again at Habakkuk 2:4:

“Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 NKJV).

In this Scripture verse, we can see that the proud person is the polar opposite from the just person who lives by faith. And since the opposite of faith is works, that means that people who try to live by works/Law are proud.

Let’s say that again:

God considers people who live by works to be proud.

It’s Scriptural algebra and geometry: Proud by X ≠ Just/justified by faith.

The first variables in each phrase are polar opposites: “proud” is the opposite of “just.” Therefore, the second variable in each phrase must also be polar opposites: “X” must be the opposite of “faith.” And the thing that we have learned, so far in this series, to be the opposite of faith is WORKS, also called “trying to keep the Law.”

Therefore, we can insert “works/Law” as the second variable of the first phrase, and the equation becomes, “Proud by works/law ≠ Just/justified by faith.”

And THAT, my friend, tells us that trying to survive by WORKS is a PRIDE issue.

Ouch.

That cuts.

But God, please, in Jesus’ name: Cut us all with Your Word. Cut me. Do surgery to Your heart’s content on me, until You have conformed me to the image of Christ. In Jesus’ name.

So do you choose to live in pride, which brings death, or humility today? Do you choose to live by FAITH, which is a must if you want to be humble? Or, do you choose to remain in works, trying to keep the Law and failing, but maintaining your cursed pride?

As the Scripture says:

Hey, everyone has to deal with pride sometimes. I have had to let God do major surgery on me to convict me of pride! Every person on this earth either has pride or has had pride in some measure. And we all have to submit that to God, allowing Him to make us humble–even imploring Him to make us humble–if we want to be like Jesus.

Are you ready to humble yourself before God today, choosing to live by faith?

Then pray this with me:

• Tell the Father that you come to Him in Jesus’ name, through faith in the Son of God who loves you and gave Himself for you.
• Thank Him for making a way to Himself through faith.
• Thank Him for answering your prayers of faith, as He has always done!
• Ask the Lord to show you any areas in your life in which you are operating in pride.
• Ask Him to convict you of pride in every area, and to give you a humble, broken, contrite, and repentant heart.
• Confess to Him your sin of pride in any area that Holy Spirit reveals this issue to you.
• Repent for it and tell the Lord that you choose to walk in the way of humility from now on.
• Ask Him to make you humble!
• Ask the Lord to help you humbly submit to His Word in every area, especially when it comes to living by faith.
• Let Him know that you choose to walk in the way of faith, and not works, from now on.
• Confess your total dependence on Him, and claim the promise that His grace is sufficient for you, for His strength is made perfect in weakness.
• Ask Him to make His strength perfect in your weakness today. Thank Him that His grace is sufficient for you in every area!
• Ask Him to give you ears to hear Him and eyes to see Him, so that you only say what He says and do what He does.
• Ask Him to help you humbly submit to Him in all things.
• Thank Him for hearing and answering your prayer, and give Him all the praise!

Beloved, walking in faith requires humility.

And choosing faith requires choosing humility every day. Otherwise, you get God’s resistors on your life, for He resist the proud (but gives grace to the humble).

Beloved, if you want God’s grace in your life, you have to be humble. Will you choose the way of humility today, walking and living by faith in Christ Jesus alone?

Leave a comment below if you are choosing humility and faith today!