Jesus was the most humble human to ever grace the face of this earth.  His arrival was the greatest demonstration of humility man had ever seen up to that point.  When Jesus, an eternal being of glory, gave up the riches of heaven, taking on a body of flesh, it constituted an unimaginable sacrifice, followed by His willingness to die for the sins of man on a cross.

Philippians 2:8 (ESV)⁸  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Notice, Paul says that Christ “humbled himself.”  This is the consistent teaching of scripture. Everything Jesus did for us was voluntary.  No one made Him do it.  

Hebrews 9:14 (ESV)
¹⁴  How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Do you see that?  Jesus “offered himself.”  It is impossible to fathom an eternal, all-powerful, being who was willing to do all that Christ did for us.  Thank God that Jesus was humble enough to offer Himself for our sins.

To live a Christ-centered life, we must follow in His steps of humility.  There is no place for pride in the heart of a child of God.  Of what do we have to be prideful?  Everything we are, both physically and spiritually, we owe to God.  The saints at Corinth were running over with pride, so Paul asked them to consider these questions:

1 Corinthians 4:7 (ESV)
⁷  For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

We should ask ourselves the same questions.  It should humble us to realize that everything we have, we received from a source outside of ourselves.  Do you have beauty?  You did nothing to deserve it.  You were born that way.  Do you have intelligence?  Again, you were born that way.  Do you have a good job?  Someone gave it to you.  In truth, everything we possess can be traced back to someone else.  This is even more so spiritually.  Are you a good song leader, Bible class teacher, or preacher?  Do you do well praying publicly?  Whatever ability or talent you have, was given to you by God.  How do I know?  By inspiration, James tells us so.  

James 1:17 (ESV)
¹⁷  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

We have nothing about which we can boast.  We were saved by grace, not by merit.  We can maintain our salvation only because God Has given us His Word to direct us (Titus 2:11-12),  and an advocate to plead our case when we fall short (1 John 2:1).  Instead of bragging about things we have no right to brag about in the first place, let us follow in the footsteps of Jesus and humble ourselves.  Let us center our lives around Christ and show the world that He lives in us.  

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.