¹² Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:12 CSB)

I am not always a humble man. I can be proud and I can focus too much attention on what I am doing rather than what God is doing. I can be overly confident in myself. It is not a bad thing to be confident. But it is a bad thing to be confident and not have a commiserate amount of humbleness.

I have tried to make a point to put others before myself. To focus on their achievements and to help them be better. In doing so I believe it has made me better. It may not have always been in my best interest, but I believe that God has blessed me for doing so.

The world has enough people screaming for everyone to look at them. It does not need anyone else to look at. God achieves a balance in this world by offsetting the boastful with the humble. I have known a great many people who were giants in the faith and to a person they were all humble and harbored a great quiet strength.

Here in lies the problem: the world does not want to hear about the humble. The world listens to the boastful and proud. Somehow humble is too often seen as weak and this could not be further from the truth. A humble soul can, and typically is, one of the strongest. It has figured out that it does not need to be recognized, does not need to be seen as successful by the world’s standards. It has learned that there is far more value in its quiet nature that points toward God. It is happy in standing back and allowing the world to look elsewhere.

There too is a quiet comfort in the strength of a humble nature. It marks a level of maturity that does not need the attention or adoration of others.