Humble And Confident

Leon FontaineDevoted

Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Romans 12:3 (NLT)

Many Christians misunderstand what it means to be humble. They’ve been taught that they have to think lowly of themselves, so they’ll say things like, I’m just a sinner saved by grace, thinking that diminishing their own worth somehow exalts Jesus. They duck compliments and quickly minimize their contributions, but this can come across as wimpy and weak to the rest of the world.

This stems from a misunderstanding of Romans 12:3, which warns us not to think more highly of ourselves than we should. But that verse is actually talking about your ability, not your worth as a person.

It’s important not to think more highly of your abilities than you should. Don’t tell a group of rookie mountain climbers you can lead them on an expedition if you don’t know what you’re doing. You’re going to get yourself and everyone else killed! Don’t tell a friend you can fix his car and then take it all apart if you don’t know how to put it back together. You’ll end up costing him more time and money to fix it than if you just stayed out of it.

But when it comes to your personal sense of confidence, just keep two things in mind. You can think as highly of yourself as you want as long as you give God all the credit and you esteem everyone else to be greater than you.

Be confident in yourself and your God-given abilities, and as long as you value others even more, there will be no arrogance or pride in you.