Are you truly humble? There are perhaps thousands of pulpits from which it is taught that it is important to keep oneself humble by declaring that “I’m just a sinner, saved by grace,” or “I’m just a worm,” or “I’m just a vapor,” or “I’m worthless without Jesus,” and so on in like manner.

The goal in such teachings is to encourage the listener to remain humble and not get too “puffed up” with pride. However, in my opinion all such mandated declarations are lies from the pit of hell and are, if truly believed by the person professing one or more of them, evidence of false humility.

When we declare or even think things about ourselves along the lines of these examples, we are essentially disagreeing with Abba who proclaims quite the contrary about his sons and daughters. For example, we are “more than conquerors” [Romans 8:37], “able to do all things through Christ who strengthens” us [Philippians 4:13], for whom “all things are possible” if we believe [Mark 9:23], who give “great delight” [Zephaniah 3:17] to our Abba, and whom Abba regards as the “apple(s) of his eye” [Deuteronomy 32:10 and Zechariah 2:8]. The list of such declarations by God is quite long indeed.

When we disagree in this way with Abba, we have provided evidence that we value our own opinions of ourselves more highly than his opinion of us. Regarding our own thoughts as more important than God’s is a clear manifestation of pride. When we deceive ourselves into thinking we are humble by disagreeing with Abba, we can expect our loving Father to discipline us with the goal of delivering our minds from such garbage.

It is best for us to simply agree with Abba concerning ourselves:

True humility is evidenced by agreement with God.