Bill had just driven his car out of the car wash and stopped to dry off some of the water drops. While he worked on the car, he noticed a shabbily dressed man shuffling down the sidewalk. He immediately assumed this poor-looking man was homeless and going to ask him for money.

To his surprise, the man did not say anything to him but sat down at the bus stop. Finally, Bill worked up the nerve to ask the man, “Do you need any help?”

The homeless man replied with three little words that changed Bill’s life: “Don’t we all?”

You have two choices: you can humble yourself, or you can let God humble you. Either way, you will be humbled. It will be better, less painful, and there will be more rewards in heaven for you if you humble yourself. Don’t get prideful and make God do it. He will humble you, and it will be painful.

There is a quote that says, “The younger I was, the more I knew. The older I get, the less I know.” I think if you look back at your life, you will see how true that is. I’m sure there was a day when you thought your parents were foolish, but the older you got, the more brilliant your parents got.

How to avoid pride? Think soberly. To avoid taking God’s glory, every day open the Word of God and seek the answers from it. Every day thank the Lord for things He’s done for you. Every day, acknowledge that your successes were not your own, but His. If you will do those things, you will avoid taking God’s glory. If you receive praise for something you’ve done, thank the person praising you but, in your heart, give the glory to God. Thank Him for working through you.