Firstly, the kind of genuine humility that isn't looking for a reward ! That would seem like it's important don't u think ?
I once saw a documentary about a group of Greek monks living on an island . They had absolutely no modern conveniences at all , no electricity , no running water etc . They worked very hard all day on what was basically a big rock in the Mediterranean . Annoyingly I can't remember what the work was , obviously the basics of cooking , cleaning , fetching water etc but they did do something else , maybe processing wool ? Something like that but , they did it without electricity or running water as I already said . It was extremely labour intensive and a very slow process . Obviously the younger ones did the hardest jobs but the older ones did their share of menial tasks . They did this every day except Sunday . On Sundays they fasted and prayed and studied the Bible all day . This was their lives for decades . One of them was interviewed , a younger one , he was asked about the lack of conveniences and the very hard physical work that could easily b done by machines . His reply has stuck with me . He said something like ; it's very important for us to never do any kind of work that would make us feel proud of ourselves . I was astonished . We always think that Christians should b do gooders , in their communities , churches , families etc but no . They looked after each others needs in that they all helped out but other than that , they believed that doing this boring , hard physical work that didn't really benefit anyone much , was helping them to b humble .
If we r only doing nice things in anticipation of a reward , that's not true humility . Personally , I think true humility comes from suffering and recognising our own uselessness and our complete dependence on God , His mercy towards us , His love for us and His generosity towards us . Without Him , being active in our lives every second of every day , we r nothing but a pile of dust . We r nothing and only exist because God is gracious and merciful and generous and loving .
