But...how does one remain humble?

Q: “How does a follower of Jesus remain humble? I see areas of pride in my life, I confess them to my Father, but how do I remain in a state of humility?” In other words, can humility be maintained with the result that failures of pride will be drastically reduced over time? This great question begs the following questions as well: Is it reasonable to expect that we can remain in a state of humility for an extended period of time? What should I expect of myself? What does God expect of me?

A: I have a three-part answer by way of three illuminating questions:

1. What is the source of humility? Humility is not the by-product of “humble behavior”. In other words, acting humble won’t produce a humble state-of-mind (soul). In fact, the example of the Pharisees strongly indicate an opposite outcome. True humility is born of a sensitivity and awareness to the presence of God in a person’s life. To the degree that a person is encountering the living God, will he/she experience a sense of humbleness. Having a humble mind will produce humble behavior (cp. Phil. 2:5ff), not the other way around. Since this is true, we must ever learn to first “practice the presence of God” (ala Brother Lawrence) before we practice our Christianity!
2. Should I expect to see less sin over time? Since sanctification is a generally gradual and upward process experienced throughout one’s life, one would expect that he/she would see less and less sin in themselves over time. However, true spiritual progress produces a surprisingly different result. Notice that the more Paul grew mature in his faith, the more he became aware of his sinfulness and capacity for failure (cp. 1 Cor. 15:9 – near the beginning of his ministry; Eph. 3:8 – about the middle of his ministry; 1 Tim. 1:15 – near the end of his life)! Yet, he didn’t despair that he wasn’t all that he could be for Christ. Instead, this led him to realize that he was truly on the way and this brought him joy – not disappointment (Phil. 3:12-14). Why? Because he saw that his spiritual progress had less to do with his efforts and more to do with God’s grace (Titus 2:11-14). So when you become acutely aware of sin in your life and you are broken over it, take this is as a sign that you are growing, not slipping backwards!
3. On what should my focus be – grass or weeds? So often, we look at the garden of our lives and we see the weeds before we notice the grass. We get frustrated and sometimes even panic because, after all, we think, My garden is supposed to be “weed-free”, yet it isn’t! Ah, stinking weeds! I must rid myself once and for all of these shameful blights in my garden! We run to the garage and grab the strongest chemical we can and feverishly begin spraying everything that remotely resembles a weed. In fact, we get so focused on treating the weeds that we forget to water the grass! And while we may have laid waste to the weeds for the day, what will inevitably appear there tomorrow or the next day? Weeds! They will return because my garden is still on earth, not heaven. It is for this reason, I believe, that the NT spends more time on how to grow grass than kill weeds. And the logic is simple enough, for if our grass grows strong, healthy, and abundant, there will be less and less room for weeds. Our focus must be on developing our Christ-character by addition and multiplication and not just subtraction (cp. 2 Pet. 1:4ff). Also, we must keep in mind that if God can be patient with us, we can be patient with ourselves without violating passages like 2 Pet. 1:4ff which advocate an aggressive approach to positive character-building in the Christian life.