If any of you reading this have ever had a conversation with me, you will know that I am the type of person who not only has an opinion on everything, but if left unattended, will discuss or debate with anyone for days on any subject under the moon. This discussion may consist of an argument going both ways, or at times may even consist of me talking until I've been told to stop or sense that the other people are tired of me talking.
Being constantly called a 'know-it-all', I've had no choice but to look at that phrase closely, and decide with careful discernment, whether this is a compliment or and insult. I do not consider myself to be 'intelligent' or wholly-knowledgeable but I do strive to take in as much information as possible on daily bases. In doing this, it does leave space for some "did you know that..." conversations to arise.

As you can imagine, this personality trait I have can expose me to a lot of bad things. One of them being pride. During the last couple of weeks, it has been something that has been strong on my heart to repent of, as well as to study. So I'd like to share my studies with you!

"Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you." James 4:10

Humility is a very difficult subject to talk about. Matt Chandler talks about it in Part 9 of his Sermon series on the book James and puts it like this:

"Can you know that you're humble? And if you know that you are humble, are you actually humble? If I ask you, 'what has God been doing in your life recently?' and you reply with: 'I just feel a deep routed humility taking hold of my life.' Do you really feel that? Did you just brag about humility?
Are we sure that we are not seeking to be humble so that we may be exalted in our humility?"

So as you can see, it is not easy to talk about this subject without sounding prideful. Many of us tend to believe that all the talents, knowledge and wisdom we THINK we have are ours. Matt Chandler says:

"Most people don't think they walk in pride, they just think they're good at what they do".

The issue with this branch of arrogance is that it causes the deterioration of your curiosity. A man who feels like he is good at what he does will be reluctant to learn anything else within his field. But a person who approaches their field with humility will continuously learn.
Worldly wisdom does not compare to the humble wisdom that God provides for us.
In other words, a man whom the world deems to be wise reads a book and gains a strong understanding of the book. But a man who God sees as wise reads a book several times and gains several different understandings each time.

Never fall under the ironically-ignorant idea that all you know is all there is to know. Proverbs puts it like this:

"Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than him." Proverbs 26:12 

At least the fool knows he is foolish and can do something about it right?

But what if you're genuinely good at what you do? You are knowledgeable and wise. How do you keep from pride? The reason why intelligent or gifted people almost always struggle with pride is their lack of understanding of where they received their good assets from.

Let me share my understanding of humility with you. It goes like this:

Humility is admitting that your gifts, talents or good-characteristics are not due to your own hard work or how great you are; they are due to how great the Creator is. How can we rejoice in ourselves as if we are the creators of our own beings? To find humility,  it is required for us to boast in the Lord (1Corinthians 1:31) - glorify Him for what He has created and the gifts He has provided His creation with.

This is a short look on Pride vs Humility.
I definitely encourage you to watch the sermon study on James Chapter 4 below for a more detailed look!

Thank you for reading :)