Humility and Giving up on Yourself

Some Christians seem to believe that pride is the chief evil. Humility is also seen as one of the best virtues. It's true that pride can be dangerous, but so can a certain kind of humility.

Who is your worst enemy? Is it you? Then you have to guard against yourself, not trust yourself. Is that a Christian answer, that you are your own worst enemy? It's sometimes popular in the church, but my naive impression is that that isn't Jesus' emphasis. I feel like for him, Satan is the main enemy, and he often wants to encourage us to have confidence in ourselves. (Like telling people to go sin no more -- who does he think we are, people who can just not sin? Perhaps so.)

Who do you think hates you more, you, or Satan? Do you benefit from being your own worst enemy? You generally don't, but Satan does. Who would benefit from you falsely thinking that you are your own worst enemy? You don't, but Satan does. It takes the focus off him, and tempts you to sink into a state of giving up on yourself. This makes you less effective in doing good, which furthers Satan's agenda. If you give up on yourself, you are a conduit for a spirit of giving up on yourself, which affects other people.

If you try to be humble, you may think "poor little me" and give up on yourself. You may think that you are unworthy of holiness and thus unworthy of repenting.

You need to overcome all of your sinful habits and, most importantly, change yourself away from any way in which you do not share God's values. God can take away your sinful habits, but you are the only person who can do anything about what values you have. You are the only person who can repent (change your heart, at the level of your intentions and not just the feelings you have, which God could give you), and you need to repent 100%. You have time in which to do this, more than this life, but you can't put it off forever. You need to learn to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength someday. Giving up on yourself keeps you from giving your whole heart, whole soul, whole mind, and whole strength.

Pride is dangerous, but "pride is dangerous" is also dangerous. Humility is dangerous, too, if it gets in the way of repentance.

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A related danger is that if you give up on your ability to seek the truth, you will tend to believe more lies than otherwise, and will live accordingly. You have to fight to discover or sometimes even to believe the truth.