To gain a better understanding of humility, we can look at its opposite — pride and haughty self-sufficiency.
James 4:6-10:
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
God resists the proud because the proud resist Him. To “humble” ourselves means to empty ourselves of all desire to exercise our personal self-will above the will of God. It is to suppress our own will for His, and in doing so we draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to us. To have “pride” is to do it on our own. It is sure to bring destruction.
Proverbs 18:12:
Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.
Before destruction is haughtiness; before honor, humility. Which do we want, destruction or honor?
Proverbs 16:18:
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
When we walk with the Lord and reverence Him we will hate pride because it pushes us away from God.
Proverbs 8:13:
The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
How arrogant and foolish man is to think his own ways are better than God’s. When we are humble to God’s ways, His will, He shall lift us up. God will honor us.