The Path That Leads to Honor
Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. Proverbs 29:23 (New Living Translation, NLT)
When something is humiliating, it is extremely destructive to your self-respect or dignity. To humiliate means to humble someone, to mortify them, to depress them, to bring shame. Humiliation is never a positive thing to experience.
Humility, on the other hand, is being humble. Humble means lowly, modest, meek.
Pride leads to humiliation, to disgrace and shame and embarrassment. It brings us low. It takes us down a notch or two, so to speak. However, humility, or the quality of making yourself low, brings honor, dignity, and respect. It actually brings one to a higher position. When we humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand, we won’t be humiliated because there is no room for pride to bring us down low. When you are already lowly and meek in heart, someone else cannot lower you.
Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 11:2 (New Living Translation, NLT)
Pride causes us to be foolish and act foolish, while humility causes one to be wise and act wisely. Being foolish ultimately leads to humiliation and disgrace. Humility prompts us to lean on God for His wisdom and guidance, leading to promotion and honor.
Pride is self-promotion, but humility allows us to have an honest assessment of our weaknesses and strengths. Pride relies on self. Humility relies on God.
Haman, in the Book of Esther, was an example of a prideful man who was self-promoting. He was humiliated and ended up on the gallows he built for someone else. Unlike Haman, Joseph remained humble and relied on God. As a result, he was honored in Egypt as second only to Pharaoh.
Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise. Proverbs 13:10 (New Living Translation, NLT)
The prideful one fights for his rights, but in the end is humiliated when proven wrong. The wise take the advice of those who know more than they do and stay humble with God. Does this mean we are to be doormats for those who wish to take advantage of us? No, but it means we stand up for ourselves and what is right with an attitude of humility, not in a haughty way. Many times we may think we are right about something only to find out that we weren’t, so a humble attitude allows us to state our case and yet admit when we are incorrect without being brought low.
Fear of the Lord teaches wisdom; humility precedes honor. Proverbs 15:33 (New Living Translation, NLT)
A wise person waits for God’s promotion. When we are full of pride, it opens the door for humiliation, the loss of respect. Stay humble and trust God. He will give us our heart’s desires if we remain in an attitude of humility and commit our ways to Him. Don’t choose the path of pride which leads to humiliation. Instead, choose the path of humility that leads to honor.
