How can we be humble ?

James 4:6 How can we be humble ?
Someone asked a question to saint Augustine, "What do you think is the most important virtue in Christianity ? He replied, " Humility !"
Then the man asked again, "What is the second important virtue ?" He said again, "Humility !" Then the man asked again, "What is the third important virtue in Christianity ?" Augustine answered, "Humility !"
Brothers and sisters, Humility is the very important virtue for all of the Christians and for you and me as well, because "God opposes the proud but gives to the humble." (James 4:6)
And the bible says about humility like these. "The humble will eat and be satisfied." (Psalms 22:26) "Humility brings wealth and honor and life." (Proverbs 22:4)
"A man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor." (Proverbs 29:23) "Before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor." (Proverbs 18:12)
"God mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble." (Proverbs 3:34) "God crowns the humble with salvations." (Psalms 149:4) "The Lord sustains the humble." (Psalms 147:6) "Lord hears the desire of the humble." (Proverbs 10:17)
These verses mean that our success and prosperity depend on humility. Then what is humility ? Is it humility that wringing hands, or bowing head, or making one's facial expression and voice strange ?
No, it is a just act of hypocrisy. The humility in Christianity does not mean servility or flattery or hypocrisy. Humility means to realize one's weakness and wickedness. and to humble oneself before God, and to trust in God.
The humility is Christianity is to exalt God not himself, to trust in God not in himself, to boast of God not of himself.
For example, all know that a monkey climbs trees very well. But if a monkey brags of himself, "I am the best and greatest monkey who climbs trees !", it is not humility.
But if the monkey says to God, "God, I know that you gave me the talent of climbing trees. But people say, 'Even a monkey falls down from a tree. (Even Homer sometimes nods.)', God, let me not fall down from a tree !", this attitude is humility.
For another example, as you know, driving a car in Seoul is very difficult. If a man brags about his driving experience in Seoul and trust in himself when he drives a car, it is not humility but pride.
But if he prays to God, "God, I am just going to drive a car, keep me safe from a car accident !", it is humility.
When I was one of the assistant pastor in Yoido Full Gospel Church, there was an elder in my district. He was the president of a company, and he was the chairman of a
mission in the church.
One day I saw his complexion looked dark and sick. And then I heard he was hospitalized because of liver cancer.
The doctor said to him, "Let's have an operation as soon as possible. The percentage of operation success is almost 100."
But the operation resulted in failure so that he died after several days. His wife said to the doctor with resentment, "Doctor, you said to us, 'The percentage of operation success is 100 !' but what is it ?"
The doctor failed in operation because he believed in himself too much. I thought it would be good if he prayed to God before operation.
"God, I have been a medical specialist for less than 100 years. But you are a specialist form eternity who can raise even the dead to life. Please, be with me. Help this operation !" Hallelujah !
The professor of Edinbergh university, James Simpson found a pain-killer so that patients can have surgery without pain. It was a great discovery in the medical world.
One day a student asked a question to him, "What do you think is the great discovery in your life ?" At this question the other students thought, "What a foolish question ! Of course, his answer will be 'pain-killer' !"
But after thinking for a while, he answered, "The great
discovery in my life is 'I am a sinner and Jesus Christ is my Savior !" Hallelujah !
The bible says, "What does the Lord require of you ? To walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)
Brothers and sisters, God is looking for the humble man, and he wants to give all the grace to the humble man. Then how can we learn humility ?
Jesus said, "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul." (Matt 11:29)
That is, we can learn humility from the humblest man Jesus. And we can learn humility from the other humble men in the bible.
Let's see Jesus. He is in very nature God, but did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being make in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself." (Phil 2:6-7)
This means that Jesus, the king of kings became the servant of servants. And the bible says about his humility, "See, your king comes to you, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Matt 21:5)
"He took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him." (John 13:4-5)
People want to be exalted and served by others. They want to brag of themself. But Jesus humbled himself and served others. He never bragged of himself. His life was the life of humility.
And the bible tells us, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." (Phil 2:5)
Let's see Moses. His face was radiant after he prayed in the Mount Sinai. People were afraid to come near him because of his radiance.
But Moses did not brag about his radiance but put a veil over his face. And there is no word in the bible that Moses kept putting a veil over his face. Why ?
I imagine that he prayed like this, "God, people cannot come to me because of my radiance. I ask you to remove my radiance from my face !"
But if he was a proud man, he might pray like this, "God make my face radiant on and on, so that people respect me always !"
Let's see Paul. He was good at study. He had the Roman citizenship. And he had a good background. But because of these, he became proud.
But after he met Jesus, he changed his name Saul (big on) to Paul (small one). And he called himself 'one abnormally born' (1 Coe 15:8) 'the worst sinner' (1 Tim 1:15)
And he said, "I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God." (1 Cor 15:9)
God gave grace to the humble Paul. so that Paul could write almost half of the new testament, and he could build up many churches wherever he stayed.
Brothers and sisters, just as water flows into the lower place and fill the lower place first, so the grace of flows into the heart of lowly man and fill him first.
I pray that you may receive the grace of God because of your humility so that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
Of course, it is not easy to be humble. But let's do our best to become humble persons. And let's pray like this, "God make me humble person !" Amen !