Humility is the only soil in which the graces root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God, and allows Him as God to do all.
Pride
Jerry Bridges
One of the most difficult defilements of the spirit to deal with is the critical spirit. A critical spirit has its root in pride. Because of the ‘plank’ of pride in our own eye, we are not capable of dealing with the ‘speck’ of need in someone else. We are often like the Pharisee who, completely unconscious of his own need, prayed “God, I thank you that I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11). We are quick to see – and to speak of – the faults of others, but slow to see our own needs. How sweetly we relish the opportunity to speak critically of someone else – even when we are unsure of the facts. We forget that “A man who stirs up dissension among brothers” by criticising one to another is one of the “six things which the Lord hates” (Proverbs 6:16-19)
Author Unknown
Every time a thought of superiority or vanity moves you, examine your conscience to see if you have kept all the commandments.
Sheryl Young
I had such a hard time giving all the glory to God when first accepting Him as Lord. Coming out of a theatre background where there were many applauds and accolades, I suffered from what I call “attention-itis” – the need for recognition. It took many years and much eating of crow before I became conscious of giving all praise to God for my accomplishments.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom.
Charles R. Swindoll
You couldn’t if you tried! Salvation is a free gift. You simply lay hold of what Christ has provided. Period. And yet the heretical doctrine of works goes on all around the world and always will. It is effective because the pride of men and women is so strong. We simply have to do something in order to feel right about it. It just doesn’t make good humanistic sense to get something valuable for nothing.
A.W. Tozer
We often treat Jesus the way Saul treated David. We want him to slay giants & sing evil spirits away but we don’t want him to be King.
James MacDonald
To really be gripped by your identity in God’s greatness you must wade out of the shallow waters of self-absorption into the deep waters of praising him at all times for all things
Bill Johnson
Sometimes, what appears to be over-qualification in ministry is actually a state of being bound to what we already know at the expense of our need to learn something new from the Lord. Putting it another way, what we know can keep us from what we need to know if we don’t maintain the attitude of a novice, staying open and teachable.
Hesychios
We are not mightier than Samson, wiser than Solomon, more knowledgeable about God than David, and we do not love God better than did Peter, prince of the Apostles. So let us not have confidence in ourselves; for he who has confidence in himself will fall headlong.