There is a difference between being humble before God, and being humbled before God. I am humbled before God, because I have not been humble. I am humbled, because of my sin. If I had been humble, I should have had grace given me to prevent it; for, "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble" (1 Pet. 5:5).
The only humble place is the presence of God. It is when I get out of His presence that I am in danger of being lifted up. People say it is dangerous to be too often on the mount. Now I do not think that it is when we are on the mount that we are in danger, but when we come off it. It is when we come off the mount that we begin to think that we have been there. Then pride comes in. I do not think that Paul needed a thorn when he was in the third heaven. It was after he had come down that he was in danger of being exalted above measure—from thinking that he had been where no one else had been.
3) I do not believe that to think badly of ourselves is true humility. True humility is never to think of ourselves at all, and that is very hard to come to. It is constantly, I, I, I. If you only begin a sentence with "I," there is nothing that a person will not put after it.