Humility is an essential quality we must have to thrive in eternity. Consider this: In the Kingdom, all the top jobs are already filled. We'd better be able to accept-and love-the role God has planned for us! God will not have another rebellion like the one Lucifer staged (Ezekiel 28:11-17 and Isaiah 14:12-14), when he and his angels "did not keep their proper domain" (Jude 6). We must never become frustrated or get angry because we think we haven't been given a sufficiently prestigious assignment. We must be able to patiently serve in the role God assigns to us.

It's easy to see the value of cultivating love and joy, but the value of really working at becoming humble is harder to grasp. It is easy to forget that we must take action to cultivate this essential quality in our character. The world doesn't value humility, but God does. "For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit" (Isaiah 57:15). "But on this one will I look: on him who is poor [humble] and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word" (Isaiah 66:2).

God names humility among the most basic requirements He expects of us: "What does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).

Humility is the quality that enables us to get along with all sorts of people without taking offense. It is being down to earth and free of pretense. It is fully accepting our station in life, and our status before God and man. It is accepting ourselves as we truly are, so that we feel no urge to inflate our social status or to pretend to be something more than we really are.

It is easy to forget to be actively cultivating this essential and valuable spiritual fruit. And humility is a fruit that is very perishable-it can quickly wither on the vine from inattention. Have the noxious weeds of pride and vanity sprouted in our spiritual gardens while we weren't looking? How often have we taken offense because we thought someone was acting or speaking disrespectfully towards us? How often do we take offense because we think someone is looking down on us? Do we ever feel shame when we think someone has measured our social status and found it smaller than we'd like?

Human beings are very status-conscious. We are like wolves in a pack, constantly measuring ourselves against each other, and constantly jostling for position. We want to be highly regarded by others, and we want to be seen as having a higher status than we truly deserve. But this is not God's way.

Jesus taught us to be humble: "Blessed are the meek" (Matthew 5:5) and said of Himself, "I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29, KJV). "Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:4).

It is also powerfully liberating to be free of the burden of trying to maintain a pretense of being more than we are and to be free of the constant gnawing fear of being found out.

Our status in this world matters very little. It is God's view of us that matters. We are important enough that Christ was willing to die for us, and we are important because God has called us. But we must not think that any measure we can see distinguishes us before God.

Neither knowledge, nor length of service as a Christian, nor stature in the Church, nor material prosperity, nor any other measure of personal status makes us any more special or exalted before God. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). God "desires all men to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4). And "God shows no partiality" (Acts 10:34).

Paul warns us that none of us should "think of himself more highly than he ought" (Romans 12:3), and he warns us not to compare ourselves among ourselves (2 Corinthians 10:12). Rather, "in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself" (Philippians 2:3).

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant . . . And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:5-8).

Peter urges us to "be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:5-6). UN