One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor. Proverbs 29:23
We only need to survey the culture around us to find evidence that the first half of this proverb is true. Secularized individuals (I say this instead of secularists simply because many people would certainly not call themselves secularists yet have nonetheless been thoroughly secularized, which is what has happened to liberal Christianity) are certainly those most supportive of celebrating pride as though it were a virtue. This is the same demographic that evidently faces the sharpest battle against despair. These two facts are related by causation not mere correlation.
No amount of affirmation and applause can change reality, both around us and within us. Like Lucifer, our greatest attempts at self-exaltation will always result in being cast down into the pit. Despair is the inevitable end (unless perhaps we can grip delusion tight enough) of worshiping ourselves as the embodiment of perfection and then discovering firsthand how pathetic deities we are. The exalted will certainly be brought low.
Yet the humble, said Jesus, will be exalted. That is, the ‘lowly in spirit will obtain honor.’ Or to put it another way in the words of Jesus again, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).