How can I elevate God more and be more humble?

[la_petit_fleur]

I have a problem of wanting other people to think well of me, and it causes a bit of anxiety if I know they don’t. I know this is ultimately rooted in pride, so other than prayer and mortification, how can I be more humble?

The flip side of this issue is that if I was able to shift my perspective and see how important God and His Kingdom are I wouldn’t care so much about this other piddly stuff. Of course, I know in my head He’s the most important thing, but how do I know it deep down in my heart? How do I know it so that it changes me?

 

[Limoncello4021]

Try praying the Litany of Humility every day. Just google and you will find it. It is really powerful!
We all struggle with this…

 

[jochoa]

I have a problem of wanting other people to think well of me, and it causes a bit of anxiety if I know they don’t. I know this is ultimately rooted in pride, so other than prayer and mortification, how can I be more humble?

Serve others more today than you did yesterday.

The flip side of this issue is that if I was able to shift my perspective and see how important God and His Kingdom are I wouldn’t care so much about this other piddly stuff. Of course, I know in my head He’s the most important thing, but how do I know it deep down in my heart? How do I know it so that it changes me?

In a similar way that you will change your will, in that today you will pray more than you did yesterday, which will in turn change what you would have been thinking, change your feelings while you pray. Consciously smile and relax your muscles more while praying. The conscious relaxation of your muscles will build your peace and your smile will build your joy!

 

[Beryllos]

I have a problem of wanting other people to think well of me… how can I be more humble?

… Of course, I know in my head He’s the most important thing, but how do I know it deep down in my heart? How do I know it so that it changes me?

You ask such good questions! I think you are not far from the Kingdom of God… but don’t let that swell your pride!

This morning, my friends and I were examining tomorrow’s Gospel reading (Matthew 22:1-14). Recall that in the parable, a wedding guest was cast out of the banquet hall because he did not have a wedding garment. Saint Augustine asked, in one of his sermons, “What is this wedding garment?”

The sermon is long, but skipping ahead to the answer, the wedding garment, as Augustine tells us, is “charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” In one word, the wedding garment is love.

Augustine recalls 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, in which St. Paul wrote, if I speak in tongues, comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge, have faith sufficient to move mountains, give all I have to the poor, and even give my body to be martyred, so that I may boast (Augustine says, through the love of glory) but do not have love, I gain nothing, I am nothing.

Augustine acknowledges that desire (pride) cannot be extinguished in this life, but he urges us to “let charity increase, and desire decrease, that the one, that is, charity, may one day be perfected, and desire be consumed.”

Getting back to your question, “how can I be more humble?”, I agree with what @jochoa wrote above: serve others, and pray.

Also do not despair. Rather, trust in God’s mercy. Augustine wrote in another sermon: “See the wedding garment; put it on, you guests, that you may sit down securely. Do not say, ‘we are too poor to have that garment.’ Clothe others, and you are clothed yourselves. It is winter; clothe the naked. Christ is naked; and He will give you that wedding garment whosoever have it not. Run to Him, beseech Him; He knows how to sanctify His faithful ones, He knows how to clothe His naked ones.”

 

[la_petit_fleur]

Thank you for your helpful reply, and for the link to that sermon! I will read it when I have a chance.