God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble (St. James 4:6).
I. Consider first, who the persons are to whom we are wont to offer resistance. They are those who wish to take away what belongs to us. When a man tries to rob us of our life, or our reputation, or our goods, we resist him with all our power. Now from this you may understand why it is said the Lord “resisteth the proud,” it is because they would take away what belongs to Him. You are a wicked robber, when by reason of the riches in your possession, or for your knowledge, or wisdom, or eloquence, or even for the performance of some act of virtue, you take pride in yourself with contempt of others, asserting your own superiority, and showing in a thousand ways your self-complacency! Is not all which you see in yourself the gift of God? “What hast thou that thou hast not received?” And if it be a gift from Him, why are you puffed up, as if it were some merit of your own? “And if thou hast received, why then dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received?” It is true, that you are a party to the various acts of virtue, by force of your free-will. But this very concurrence you owe to God, Who causes you to concur, without, however, doing violence to your natural freedom: “It is God Who worketh in you to will.” Does not the body concur in all its own operations, of seeing, dancing, speaking, and the like? And yet it could not without folly attribute to itself, instead of the soul which is its guiding power, any one of these operations. Here then is a good illustration of your free-will stripped of the grace of God; it is a body without a soul: it can do nothing: or if it can do anything, it can only commit sin, and run headlong to ruin and perdition. Happy you, if you are able to fathom this truth to its profoundest depths. Oh, how should you blush at so many robberies committed by you every day to the injury of your God!
II. Consider secondly, why it is said that the Lord gives to the humble His grace, which is a jewel of great price. Because He knows how to entrust it to safe hands. The humble are faithful trustees, for they neither rob, nor defraud, nor do they use what is given except for the good service of that Lord Whose gift it is. Hence the Lord gladly showers down all His riches on the humble. “And He causeth the fountain to spring up in the valley.” For He knows that in the end the waters shall return to Him, and that the rivers will not lose themselves in the valleys, but will find their way to the great sea. It is but just that the Lord should be jealous of His own glory! Every one is bound to respect the truth. If the Lord should attribute to you one particle of that glory which wholly belongs to Him, He would be guilty of a lie. Whereas, you are so pleasing in the sight of God in the act of humbling yourself, simply because you are then speaking the truth.
III. Consider thirdly, that whenever therefore you have to undertake any difficult enterprise which may redound to the glory of God, before entering thereupon you should ponder well on this: that “God resisteth the proud, but giveth His grace to the humble.” You should retire for a time into yourself, and recognize your own nothingness, your weakness, ignorance, unskilfulness, and manifold demerits, and earnestly accuse yourself in God’s presence. Then you may be sure that by doing so God will be better pleased to work along with you, because thereby it will be the more apparent that He alone it is Who works in all. Is not He the One Who “showeth the riches of His glory unto vessels of mercy,” that is to say, those instruments which are the most pitiful and poor, and for that very reason chosen by Him out of sheer pity? Thus, with this lively confidence awakened within you, go forward generously and confront the difficulties which seek to scare you away; being fully assured that of yourself you are not able to conquer them, but that nevertheless you shall overcome, because you have on your side the God of all power: “The Almighty shall be against thy enemies.”