The Pursuit of Happiness Daily Devotional -9

PHILIPPIANS 2:3 | ³ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  

Unity is a calling, a goal, and a tenuous but powerful achievement. It cannot coexist with selfishness or conceit. Conceit treats others’ gifts and contributions as a threat, instead of a cause for celebration. Conceit can’t embrace others’ ideas, or engage in the face to face business of accountability, confession, and the amendment of our lives and attitudes. Selfishness insists on the priority of the first person singular and undermines the first person plural.

This chapter describes a new virtue Jesus brought to the ancient world—humility. Oneness requires it, and classical societies considered it a sure sign of craven weakness and a disqualification for leadership. Jesus taught it as a precondition of the repentance that allows us to receive His mercy and enter God’s kingdom.

Do you have a strategy for remaining humble?

Tags: humility, repentance