One would think that pride is one way or another useful. But the Bible speaks so powerfully against it. What is it about pride that offends God and even us so much, and why does humility play a huge role in God's kingdom?
James 4:6 says, "But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'"
Imagine being opposed by God Himself. The Bible tells us that happens when we choose to live in pride by bringing all glory and dependence towards the self. We were never meant to be independent beings. God designed us to be dependent to something, and ultimately He wants us to build that dependence upon Him.
If we want to experience God's fullness, we need to be attached to Him like our life depends on it, and that requires a whole lot of humility.
We Can't Handle Glory
Why is humility so important to a Christian? One reason is because we can't handle glory. Pride seeks self-glorification while humility defers all glory and praises to God. Aside from God deserving it more than we do, we can't handle it the way He can. Man was never meant for glory because we were only meant to be givers and channels of it.
Jude 25 declares this, "to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."
Our goal is to live in a way that glorifies God and when glory comes to us, we are to be faithful vessels that will bring it back to God.
God's Power Works Best in Our Weakness
There is nothing that we can do apart from God. All our skills, talents and abilities are ours simply because God gave them to us. From time to time God will allow circumstances that are beyond us to come so that we will learn to trust solely on God and come to Him in complete humility. That's why humility works—because we allow God's power to work over our own power and even our weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:9 says, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
Pride Is a Heavy Burden
We are all in this race—this marathon where we all run to the prize that is Christ. In this race, we must lay aside all burden and weight that hold us down. Pride can be an extremely heavy weight to carry around. What we think lifts us up above all else is actually what drags us down.
Hebrews 12:1 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."
The best alternative to pride is to live a life of humility—putting on Christ instead of our own self-glory.
