Humility and Exaltation: Collecting Dew From Heaven

(Another imaginary interview with Andrew Murray and his book Humility.)

MCF: Humility and exaltation do not seem to go together very well.  When I am lifted up, it's hard to stay humble.

AM:  Two things are needed.  Do what God say is your work: humble yourself.  Trust him to do what he says is his work: he will exalt you.

MCF:  How do I go about humbling myself?

AM: It is not your work to conquer and cast out the pride of your nature and form within yourself the lowliness of the holy Jesus.  No, this is God's work.  It is the very essence of how he lifts you up into the real likeness of the beloved Son.  What the commandment does mean is this: take every opportunity of humbling yourself before God and man.  Accept with gratitude everything that God allows from within or without, from friend or enemy, in nature or in grace, to remind you of your need of humbling and help you to it.  Reckon humility to be indeed the mother-virtue, your very first duty before God, the one perpetual safeguard of the soul.  Set your heart upon humility as the source of all blessing.  The promise is divine and sure: he that humbles himself will be exalted.

MCF: When I do this I find myself getting increasingly frustrated and tired.  How can I find a higher humility which lifts up my heart and soul rather than grinding me into dust?

AM: All God's dealings with people are characterized by two steps.  The first is the time of preparation. Command and promise mingle with the experience of effort and impotence, of failure and partial success.  But also there is the holy expectancy of something better which these awaken.  These experiences train and discipline people for a higher stage.  Then comes the time of fulfillment.  Faith inherits the promise and enjoys what it had so often struggled for in vain.  This principle holds good in every part of the Christian life, and is the pursuit of every individual virtue.

MCF:  This time of preparation can be discouraging.  Why doesn't God just give a person humility immediately?

AM:  It is grounded in the very nature of things. In all that concerns our spiritual growth, God must take the initiative. When that has been done, a person gets his turn. In the effort after obedience and attainment, he must learn to know his impotence and to die to himself in self-despair.  Then, voluntarily and intelligently, he is able to receive from God the end, the completion of what he had accepted at the beginning in ignorance. It is God who had been the Beginning of it all, before the person rightly knew Him, or fully understood what His purpose was.  Now at the end, he longs for and.welcomes God as the End, as the All in All.

To put it another way: we know the law of human nature: acts produce habits, habits breed dispositions, dispositions form the will, and the rightly-formed will is good character. It is no different in the work of grace. God works through persistently repeated acts to beget habits and dispositions and to strengthen the will, and comes with His mighty power and Spirit.  The humbling of the proud heart with which the penitent saint cast himself so often before God, is rewarded with the "more grace" of the humble heart.  In that heart the Spirit of Jesus has conquered, and brought the new nature to its maturity.  Now the meek and lowly One dwells there forever.

MCF:  It would not be surprising that I am afraid of the effort.  At the same time, though, I find myself hungry for the promise of being lifted up by God.  Any final words about humility and exaltation?

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AM:  This humility, my friend, is a secret of secrets.  It will help you to reap where you have not sown, and be a continual source of grace in your soul.  Everything that inwardly stirs in you, or outwardly happens to you becomes a real good to you, if it finds or excites in you this humble state of mind.  Nothing is in vain or without profit to the humble soul.  It stands always in a state of divine growth.  Everything that falls upon it is like a dew of heaven to it. Therefore, close yourself in this form of Humility.  Always be enclosed in it.  Let it be the clothes you wear.  Breathe nothing but in and from its spirit, see nothing but with its eyes, hear nothing but with its ears. Then, whether you are in the church or out of the church, hearing the praises of God or receiving wrongs from men and the world, everything will build you up and everything will help you grow in the life of God.

Lord, I long for you to lift me up.  I find myself beaten down by my desires and unable to fulfill them.  I want to turn them over to you.  I want to wait for you in humility so I might be wet with this "dew from heaven," this heavenly help, this grace that keeps on giving.  Let it be so.  Lift me up today as you teach me the joy of lowliness.  Amen.

Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  (Luke 18:14)

Humility and Happiness, an Interview with Andrew Murray

(An interview with Andrew Murray from my imagination using his book Humility, Chapter 11)

MCF:  How can we find pleasure in our weakness or happiness in humility?  How do we enter into this "new stage in relation to our trials," as you call it?

AM:  Let's be clear.  Nearly every Christian passes through two stages in his pursuit of humility.  In the first he fears and flees and seeks deliverance from all that can humble him.  He prays for humility, but in his secret heart he prays more to be kept from the very things that would make him humble.

MCF:  So recognizing the first stage in the journey of humility can open the door to the second stage?

AM:  Yes, we can recognize we have further to go.  In the Christian's pursuit of humility, there is a sense of burden and bondage.  Becoming humble has not yet become the spontaneous expression of a life and a nature that is essentially humble.  It has not become his joy and only pleasure.

Can we get there?  Undoubtedly.  What will it be that brings us there?  That which brought Paul there as he dealt with the thorn in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12) - a new revelation of the Lord Jesus - who he is and how he loves.

MCF:  Looking inward, then, does not help us grow in this process as much as looking upward.

AM:  Upward, yes.  The highest lesson a believer has to learn is humility.  Oh, that every Christian who seeks to be holy and mature may remember this well!  There may be intense callings and fervent passion, and heavenly experiences, and yet, if it is not prevented by special dealings of the Lord, there may be an unconscious self-exaltation with it all.  Let us learn the lesson: the highest holiness and greatest maturity is the deepest humility.  It is indeed blessed, the deepest happiness of heaven, to be be so free from self that whatever is said of us or done to us is lost and swalloed up in the thought that Jesus is all.

MCF:  Humiliation in itself is not pleasurable, but it is "swallowed up" in the joy of sharing in Jesus' glory and goodness.  Can this joy in Christ really be enough to swallow up any trouble?

AM:  Let us trust him who took charge of Paul to take charge of us too.  He who cared from him will care for us too.  He watches over us with a jealous, loving care, "lest we exalt ourselves."  Pride kills.  He seeks to show us that evil and deliver us from it.  In such trial and weakness and trouble, we learn his grace is all, his strength is made perfect in our weakness, his presence fills and satisfies our emptiness.  This is the secret of humility that never fails.

MCF:  Any final words about happiness and humility?

AM:  The humble person has learned the secret of abiding happiness .  The weaker he feels, the lower he sinks, the greater his humiliations appear, the more the power and the presence of Christ are his possession.  As he learns to say, "I am nothing," the word of his Lord brings ever deeper joy: "My grace is sufficient for you."

The humility of Jesus is our salvation: Jesus himself is our humility.  Our humility is his care and his work.  Let us choose to be weak, to be low, to be nothing.  Let humility be to us joy and gladness.  Let us gladly glory and take pleasure in weakness in all that can humble us so the power of Christ will rest upon us.  We will find the deepest humility is the secret of the truest happiness, of a joy that nothing can destroy.

Humility and Faith: Faith Requires Humility

In an address I lately heard, the speaker said that the blessings of the higher Christian life were often like the objects exposed in a shop window - one could see them clearly and yet could not reach them. If told to stretch out his hand and take, a man would answer, "I cannot; there is a thick pane of plate-glass between me and them."  And even so Christians may see clearly the blessed promises of perfect peace and rest, of overflowing love and joy, of abiding communion and fruitfulness, and yet feel that there was something between hindering the true possession.  And what might that be?  Nothing but pride.  (Murray, Andrew (2011-03-03). Humility, Chapter 9: Humility and Faith, (Kindle Locations 567-571). Niche Edition. Kindle Edition.)

INVISIBLE PRIDE

Pride often remain invisible, a strange sickness in which blindness to one's own condition is a symptom.  Reading the Bible, God's promises are great, but often ignored or diminished because we get used to seeing them on the other side of the glass of pride.

The invisible barrier of pride comes out in various phrases.  "I can't do that!  I can't live without that!  Why would I want to give that up?"  Our wills are enslaved to our immediate desires and passions.  Pride says, "I won't do what I can't do on my own otherwise my desires might go unsatisfied."

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The cost is high.  As long as we walk by sight and not by faith, the glass of pride remains keeping us from the "blessed promises of perfect peace and rest, or overflowing love and joy, of abiding communion and fruitfulness."  In short, the things of the kingdom of God.  "Even the most secret breathing of pride, in self-seeking, self-will, self-confidence, or self-exaltation, is just the strengthening of that self which cannot enter the kingdom or possess the things of the kingdom, because it refuses to allow God to be what He is and must be there - All in All."  (ibid, Kindle Locations 580-582)

When we begin to walk by faith and not by sight, we find that "humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust. . . .  Faith is the organ or sense for the perception and apprehension of the heavenly world and its blessings.  Faith seeks the glory that comes from God, that only comes where God is All. . . .  Pride renders faith impossible."  (ibid, Kindle Locations 583-584)  As Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."  (Matthew 18:3-4, ESV)

SALVATION THROUGH HUMILITY

Recently my pride hid from my eyes as self-loathing.  The anger of pride was directed inward.  I could not even ask for help.  I felt there was no place for me and no hope for me.  I believe some of it is seasonal, but there was something more intense and desperate as I struggled through my days.  I did not see it as pride.  Actually, I probably thought it was humility of sorts.

But in this self-loathing was also a complete lack of faith.  I had no trust in God, in what he made me, how he has walked with me, nor in where he might take me.  I was stubbornly determined to take my own path, even if it was self-destructive.  I can see how pride brings self-destruction.  It may be through despair or anger or lust, but the refusal to give in to God is the same.

I needed salvation, deliverance in an active sense.  Such salvation requires humility and faith.  "Salvation comes through a cross and a crucified Christ. Salvation is the fellowship with the crucified Christ in the Spirit of His cross. Salvation is union with and delight in, salvation is participation in, the humility of Jesus."  (ibid, Kindle Locations 585-586)  When God showed me that my struggle was with pride, not with any real deficiency, I was able to give in and call for help.

God's help almost always involves the grace of other people.  Instead of driving them off, I began seeking them out.  Instead of hiding myself and worrying about my peculiarities, I began to exercise them as gifts and talents.  Pride renders faith impossible partly (maybe mostly) because it renders relationships impossible.  Pride ends in collapse of the self and the ruin of the soul.  Humility welcomes relationships and seeks them out.  It opens the self to God in an attitude of worship and self-sacrifice, which rebuilds and fortifies the soul.

Lord, may my life be open before you as a living sacrifice.  May the glass of pride be shattered by the truth of my humble position, my humble needs, and my humble offerings to you.  May my humility not remain a mere abstraction, but show up in all my relationships as I lay my life down before you.  Amen.

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;    my eyes are not raised too high;I do not occupy myself with things    too great and too marvelous for me.But I have calmed and quieted my soul,    like a weaned child with its mother;    like a weaned child is my soul within me.O Israel, hope in the Lord    from this time forth and forevermore.  (Psalm 131, ESV)

Humility and Sin: Learning to Live with Freedom

"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath now made me free from the law of sin, which once led me captive" - is neither the annihilation nor the sanctification of the flesh, but a continuous victory given by the Spirit as He mortifies the deeds of the body. As health expels disease, and light swallows up darkness, and life conquers death, the indwelling of Christ through the Spirit is the health and light and life of the soul.

It is not sin, but God's grace showing a man and ever reminding him what a sinner he was, that, will keep him truly humble. It is not sin, but grace, that will make me indeed know myself a sinner, and make the sinner's place of deepest self-abasement the place I never leave.

Being occupied with self, even amid the deepest self-abhorrence, can never free us from self. It is the revelation of God, not only by the law condemning sin but by His grace delivering from it, that will make us humble. The law may break the heart with fear; it is only grace that works that sweet humility which becomes a joy to the soul as its second nature.

Not to be occupied with thy sin, but to be occupied with God, brings deliverance from self. (Andrew Murray, Humility, Chapter 8)

LEARNING FREEDOM

For most of my life I have been trying to learn how to live best in captivity.  How can I make this slavery as bearable as possible?  Weren't the Jews told to settle down in the cities of their exile?  I am also in exile in this world.  Perhaps it's best to just make the best of it.  Unfortunately, that is just my problem.

God has not removed the law of sin yet.  It is still alive and well in this life.  What he has done is supersede that law with another: the law of the Spirit of life.  The freedom I experience is not merely a future hope, otherwise no one could say they were set free, but only that they will be set free someday.  The freedom I experience is not an all-at-once sort of exchange, either.  If that were so, then I would be simply "freed" from the law of sin rather than being "hath now made. . . free" as Paul writes.

I suppose the best way to describe this freedom is that the chains are cut, but I am still like a freed slave in the South during the Civil War or like Pilgrims given leave to make a colony in the New World. The journey lies ahead of me even though freedom is mine.  I am free, but I must learn (and sometimes fight) to be free.

The Israelites' journey through the wilderness into the Promised Land gives a vivid picture of freedom.  At times they longed for their slavery back in Egypt.  Such longing buried them in the wilderness.  They may have been set free, but they never lived as free.  Perhaps my deliverance is a lot like theirs.  Maybe I am not so much doubting that the Red Sea of sin was split open for me and God fought for my soul against this "world with devils filled," but that I do not want to live in the freedom into which he has brought me.  I do not need someone telling me I have been set free so much as someone who will show me how to live free.

SIN FACES AWAY FROM GOD

The law of sin is the tendency to withdraw from the race, complain and die in the wilderness, make the "best" of this life.  The law of the Spirit of life is "continuous victory" over that temptation to "Curse God and die" or "Eat, drink, and be merry."  God does not remove the law of sin because it is merely the opposite of the law the Spirit of life.  They face opposite directions, one toward God, the other toward my self.

Murray points out that the law of the Spirit of life is evidenced by humility.  Humility is the right response to the law of the Spirit of life.  It performs two actions.  It denies the self.  When I live according to this law, I turn my back on living by the effort and power of my unaided, uncontrolled self.  Instead I embrace God through the Spirit.  I trust him.  I live for his aid and his control (which is not controlling).  The law of sin does the opposite.  Under that law, I deny God in how I live and trust my own resources to get me through.

Lord, I find myself so easily trying to manage my own sin and my own life.  Somehow I find I get so busy with trying to live my life without you, trying to make it all work.  The issue is not how good I am, but how good you are.   It is not about how bad I am, but about how you have loved me even in my badness.  Let me find the humility that empowers me to live with your grace.  Let me dispense with the false humility that drives me to despair.  Amen.

One of the best indicators of which law rules my life comes in the question, "What preoccupies my mind?

Humility and Holiness: Seeing Less of Myself

The one infallible test of our holiness will be the humility before God and men which marks us. . . .  The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility.

Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, the other a publican.  There is no place or position so sacred but the Pharisee can enter there. Pride can lift its head in the very temple of God, and make His worship the scene of its self exaltation.

Yes, even when in the temple the language of penitence and trust in God's mercy alone is heard, the Pharisee may take up the note of praise, and in thanking God be congratulating himself. Pride can clothe itself in the garments of praise or of penitence. Even though the words, "I am not as the rest of men" are rejected and condemned, their spirit may too often be found in our feelings and language towards our fellowworshippers and fellow-men.

[Such pride] can be recognized, not always in any special selfassertion or self-laudation, but simply in the absence of that deep self-abasement which cannot but be the mark of the soul that has seen the glory of God (Job 42: 5, 6; Isa.6: 5). It reveals itself, not only in words or thoughts, but in a tone, a way of speaking of others, in which those who have the gift of spiritual discernment cannot but recognize the power of self.

Unless we make, with each advance in what we think holiness, the increase of humility our study, we may find that we have been delighting in beautiful thoughts and feelings, in solemn acts of consecration and faith,while the only sure mark of the presence of God, the disappearance of self, was all the time wanting.  (Andrew Murray, Humility, Chapter 7)

 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  (Luke 18:14)

 As a person who wants to write well, I am particularly drawn to beautiful or ingenious words or thoughts.  I can be taken away with how I go about saying something more than what I am seeking to say.  While being nice and mannerly can really play an important role in any personal interaction, it is the attitude within my heart that will make even plain words profound or beautiful words ugly.

So in many situations, I am faced with the those two men "coming up to pray."  I can be planning my day at work, talking with my wife at home, teaching my kids, or worshiping at church.  I will find those two with me in my heart.  One stands above everyone else, the other beneath.  One looks around for reasons to feel good about himself, the other seeks to be honest and true.

As an example, I can see that planning my time at home would have these two attitudes at war within me.  I can think about how much work I do compared to everyone else (at least in my own eyes) and commend myself to others by recounting all that I do.  From that I feel pretty justified in leaving certain things undone, things that are unimportant (especially to me).  Maybe, though another voice might speak loudly enough to hear: "It's all a gift to you.  You didn't earn any of it.  Even your ability to work is not entirely yours."  I might find myself grateful to be able to work for people I love and want to learn how to love.  No amount of work will repay what I've been given, so I need not work to earn, but work out of thankfulness.

I think this goes a little deeper than the little angel on one shoulder and the little devil on the other.  First of all, both the men worshiped in the temple.  They aren't doing different things.  What made them different was how they worshiped.  Same with my work at home.  Either way I do the work, but the attitudes are entirely different.  The attitude will determine how I work.

One thing helpful in changing attitudes here is realizing that these two men are utterly different.  Their attitudes are two different sides of the spectrum.  Jesus told this story to show a choice I have.  Either I will be like the Pharisee or the publican (tax collector).

With this in mind, I have two ways I can seek to be like the tax collector.  I can seek to be like him directly or I can seek to not be like the Pharisee.  I can more easily recall Jesus encouraging his followers to not be like Pharisees ("Beware the yeast of the Pharisees", "Your righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees", "Do what they say, but do not do what they do", etc.).  I think he did this knowing that humility is not obtained directly, but indirectly.

What I find so helpful in Murray's comments is the connection between humility before God and humility before people.  What counts is humility before God.  It is what brings humility toward other people.  As a result, humility toward other people ends up being a good indicator of my humility before God.  If I am humble before God, I will be humble before people, so if I am not humble before people, I am not humble before God.

Humility is marked by the absence of self: self-consciousness as well as self-aggrandizement, self-contempt as well as self-worship.  A life lived before God is one where the self becomes invisible, neither petted and fondled, nor whipped and beaten.  As Murray says, God becomes all and I become nothing (but not worthless).  Such is the basis for holy living, life as it should be before God.  Such a life is "justified" or made right before God.

Each moment gives me opportunities for such living.  What if I really didn't have to worry about myself?  What if I could really trust God in each moment to work, play, and rest along with me?  What if all the burdens I have to lift in my life are easy because he is at the other end?  Worship might look a lot different as well as playing with my dogs at home.  And both would be holiness.

Be still, my soul, the Lord is at thy side.  I need not worry or complain.  I can trust instead of trying to please, because you are pleased with my trust, Father.  Let humility permeate my life as I look to you as my refuge and strength.  Amen.

Humility in Daily Life - Give as You Have Received

If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  (1 John 4:20)

It is easy to think we humble ourselves before God: humility towards men will be the only sufficient proof that our humility before God is real.

The insignificances of daily life are the importances and the tests of eternity, because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us.  (Andrew Murray, Humility, Chapter 6)

There is a lie circulated in many Christian circles.  Actually, it is also popular in non-Christian therapy.  "You must forgive if you want to be forgiven."  What heavier burden could I place on another person?

The thought comes from a misinterpretation of part of the Lord's prayer and other passages like it: "Forgive us trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."  I have tried to live this false idea out and have placed the burden on other people as well.  The story is grounded in a false picture of God.

Somehow this god says that I must prove my gratitude to him by loving and forgiving other people who are disagreeable or even hurtful toward me.  He says, "I will withhold my love, peace, and joy and will not forgive you until you love and forgive your enemies."

If this is how God is, Jesus would say to the Samaritan woman, "I will not speak to you until you forgive all the men who have used and abused you as well as all the people who have mocked and excluded you.  Living water is only for those who forgive."  Maybe he would say to the woman caught in adultery, "I will condemn you until you forgive those men who were about to stone you."  Instead of saying, "Neither do I condemn you - go and sin no more", Jesus would just say, "Go and sin no more."

The point that Jesus is making in his parables and sayings about forgiveness is not that we should forgive or that we must forgive, but that those who live in the love and forgiveness of God can forgive.  As James Bryan Smith says, people who do not forgive do not lack willpower, but resources.  With this truth, when I cannot forgive, I realize that it is the measure of lack of awareness and experience with God's forgiveness of me.

Yes, lack of forgiveness points out hypocrisy in me and in others.  I make myself a liar when I withhold forgiveness.  The real story, however, is not that God holds a grudge against me until I forgive.  Instead, the story is that I need to understand and experience God's forgiveness in my life before I can share it with others.  The basic misunderstanding is that I need to forgive rather than sharing Christ's forgiveness with other people as I have received it.  "Freely you have received, now freely give."  (Matthew 10)

Humility underlies that forgiveness.  Humility toward other people indicates that I understand my place before God.  Again, this is easy to misunderstand.  The narrative is not that I am so low and unworthy before God that I only deserve to be the lowliest scum slave before other people.  No, I am loved and gently cared for by God, who is everything to me, so losing to others, serving them, and lifting them up does not take anything from me, but allows me to serve my God through my service and humility toward them.  "Whatever you do to the least of these, you do it to me," says Jesus, not as a threat, but as a promise of peace and joy in and with him.

Daily life is the place where this plays out.  It is more about how I treat people on the road than how many I invite to church.  It is more about what I do for my wife and kids than what I do for the homeless person "out there."  It is more about how I do my job at work that how many committees or ministries I serve in at church.  Humility plays out in "insignificant" places rather than ones that seem "spiritual" or "important."  This is a hard lesson to learn in many ways, but the goodness of God makes it possible for me to be trained and grow in humility and forgiveness.

Lord, Help me to lay aside the false ideas about forgiveness and humility.  I want to embrace humility that touches each area of my life.  I want to see you as the forgiving One, the humble One, and so find my hope and strength.  Open my eyes.  Clear out my ears.  Let each day bring me a time when I can yield to other people as I yield to you.  Amen.

Humility: Jesus' Disciples - New Heart Needed

Create in me a pure heart, O God,   

  and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 

Do not cast me from your presence    

  or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation    

  and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  (Psalm 51:10-12)

Apart from me, you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

How impotent all external teaching and all personal effort is, to conquer pride or give the meek and lowly heart - for three years the disciples had been in the training school of Jesus. . . .  And yet all had availed but little. At the Holy Supper there was still the contention as to who should be greatest.

To teach them and us the much needed lesson, that no outward instruction, not even of Christ Himself; no argument however convincing; no sense of the beauty of humility, however deep; no personal resolve or effort, however sincere and earnest, can cast out the devil of pride.

It is only by the indwelling of Christ in His divine humility that we become truly humble.  (Andrew Murray, Humility, Chapter 5)

A little while ago I tried to revive a laptop computer from the dead.  I did a couple of fairly small repairs on it and it seemed to do well for a little bit, but then it would crash and burn again.  I try to use things until they are no longer usable.  In this case, I had gone a little beyond the expiration date of this computer.  It had given several years of good service, but needed more than I could give to it.  We discovered that we needed a new computer instead of fixing the old one.

The human heart was not made to be disposable like that computer.  The human heart will last into eternity.  It will either be thrown on the trash-heap of its own pride or placed in the setting of God's grace to shine with him eternally.  The fix for the human heart is not a "tuck here and there," but a complete overhaul.  I do not need my heart to be tweaked, I need a new heart altogether.

I need a heart that bleeds to be in God's presence and beats along with his.  I need a heart that is willing rather than willful.  I need a heart that seeks one thing in purity.  I need a heart that lives in the joy of being delivered.  I need a heart sustained by God.

Since my need is for a new heart, I cannot fix myself.  If my problems were small and relatively easy to fix, then I might be able to get somewhere.  (I think this is one reason I tend to be blind to my own sins: I want to believe I can fix myself.)  No, I find instead that my spirit is not repairable, but completely unusable in seeking and staying with God and navigating life in general.  I find neither the strength nor interest to remain with Christ long.  Without Christ, I am helpless and hopeless.

Seeking humility brings me to this point quickly.  How true that I can study, seek, and try to beat myself into submission, only to find that pride has been at my side instead of God.  I want God to help me, but find that he won't.  Instead he wants to inhabit my life.

It's sort of like asking a therapist to help you with a problem and having the therapist say he has to move in with you.  Or maybe, it is like spending two weeks in a hospital hoping to get better, only to find you'll have to stay there indefinitely to continue living at all.  This is what my "old heart" tells me.  It tells me, "If you let him have too much, he'll take it all, and you'll be miserable."

This much is true.  Jesus wants it all.  He asks to move in permanently.  He asks me to move away with him.  However, the "being miserable" part has to do with that "old heart" and how it works.  It lives on getting what it wants.  If that "old heart/spirit/will/self" doesn't get what it wants, it dies.  The only solution to my problem is to put it to death through suffocation.  I do not let it get what it wants.

If I do not have a new heart, then my old heart has to come up for breath every once in a while.  I live with "managing" my sin, "coping" with my problems, "compromising" with God.  In the end, I am frustrated with God because he won't cooperate.  I end up thinking he demands too much and gives too little.  This is because I am operating out of that old heart that pridefully wants its own way.

The new heart does not live in me apart from God living with me.  The new heart dies when it is not doing what God wants.  It lives to see him, walk with him, work with him, play with him.  The new heart actively puts the old one to death by depriving it of its own way and seeking God's ways.  The new heart has desires just like the old one does, but they originate and end with God instead of the self.

Humility is the beating of that new heart.  Pride is the beating of the old one.  Every life-giving pulse from the new heart feeds the body, mind, soul, and relationships with God's love, joy, and peace.  Every pulse from the old heart brings further death and ruin to the soul, body, mind, and relationships, striving to make them serve my own desires rather than God.

While lessons might inspire me to seek a new heart, they will never give one.  While the testimony of other people might show me how much I long for a new heart, they will never give me one.  Jesus is plain about what the operation requires.  "Come with me, stay with me, make your home in me.  Let my words be your words.  Let my life be your life."  His teaching is more than teaching.  His example is more than example.  He lives.  I must let him live with me and through me.  He will be closer than even my family if I will let him.  He will give me the whole treatment - a new heart - and I will find everlasting, fulfilling life with him and in him.

Lord, I want a little humility, but not too much, so I end up with none.  I want to live my way and your way and hope it will all work out, but it never does.  Let me come to you and leave everything behind.  Let me move in with you and out of this old life I am trying to make work.  Make humility the blood that flows in my veins even as my heart beats for you.  Amen.


Do you fear giving God "too much?"  What do you fear he would do to you?  Could it be that your pride is afraid to die?  Can you really live compromising with God?

Humility: Jesus' Teaching - In Word and Deed

I lift up my eyes to you,
  to you whose throne is in heaven.
As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
  till he shows us his mercy.  (Psalm 123:1-2)

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:28-30)

The chief glory of heaven, the true heavenly-mindedness, the chief of the graces, is humility. "He that is least among you, the same shall be great. "

Just as water ever seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds the creature abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless.

Let us study the words [of Christ] we have been reading, until our heart is filled with the thought: My one need is humility. And let us believe that what He shows, He gives; what He is, He imparts. (Andrew Murray, Humility, Chapter 4)

Faith without humility can only be placed in oneself.  The essence of pride is trusting oneself above everyone else.  The essence of humility is faith in God and in those he sends to me.  So humility is the right placement of trust in my life; pride is the wrong placement of trust.  Humility is pictured so well as a servant looking to his master for mercy and kindness.  May my eyes be lifted up only to see you, Lord, and seek your merciful grace.


Humility is rest for my soul.  In humility, I lay my burdens down and take up the yoke of Jesus: a gentle and humble heart.  Compared to the ever-increasing burden of pride, which always takes more than it gives and burdens the soul with worry and suspicion, humility lightens my soul as I give up more and more of my worries and desires.  They are replaced with the peace and joy of Jesus, who looked for God's glory and relied on God for his needs and desires.  May I throw off the burden of pride and run to you, Lord, crying, "Life, life, eternal life!"

There are physical laws through which creation obeys the word of God.  Water flows to the lowest place.  There are spiritual laws that also govern spiritual beings.  God's glory and power flow into his humble servants. Understanding the laws of creation, we use the fall of water to make power, beauty, and even health.  It is harder to acknowledge and use the moral and spiritual laws that can also bring power, beauty, and healing.

Probably the hardest thing is that humility cannot be obtained without God.  And yet, it can be learned, if what Jesus said was true.  It may be that much of the reason God does not act in my life is because I lack humility.  I will not let him act as God, but only as an idol I can control.  I ask for his help, but live like I do not want or need it.  I look to him for healing, but refuse to stay in his care until I recover.  My words sound humble, but my daily life belies them: I live depending on my own resources.

Lord, I have so much to learn!  I speak like I trust you, but find that I quickly turn elsewhere for help.  I am burdened with my pride's demands, but I refuse to lay it down in fear of what humility might ask of me.  Help me to live as I pray, with you as my daily bread and deliverer.  Amen.


What kind of burdens does your pride lay on your shoulders?  How often do you ask God and actually wait for him to answer and work in your life?  Do you think you can trust God to come through?

Humility: Jesus' Inner Life - Doing What God Does

Not to us, O Lord, not to us
  but to your name be the glory
  because of your unfailing love and faithfulness.  (Psalm 115:1) 

I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  (John 5:19)

In the Gospel of John we have the inner life of our Lord laid open to us. Jesus speaks frequently of His relation to the Father, of the motives by which He is guided, of His consciousness of the power and spirit in which He acts.

Listen to the words in which our Lord speaks of His relation to the Father, and how unceasingly He uses the words not, and nothing, of Himself.

[Jesus' words] teach us what the essential nature and life is of that redemption which Christ accomplished and now communicates. It is this: He was nothing, that God might be all.

This life of entire self-abnegation, of absolute submission and dependence upon the Father's will, Christ found to be one of perfect peace and joy.

His humility was simply the surrender of Himself to God, to allow Him to do in Him what He pleased, whatever men around might say of Him, or do to Him.  (Andrew Murray, Humility, Chapter 3)

In the face of great art, great works of literature, great feats of strength and skill, and great acts of kindness I am sometimes brought into a sense of awe at what can be done by a person dedicated to such actions.  I think of myself as rather mediocre and even lazy.  My life can seem colorless and empty in the face of greatness.

Self-deprecation is not a virtue, but the feeling of awe which inspires me to live for something greater than just "getting by" can lead me to virtue.  Such is the humility of the psalmist (115:1) who gives glory to God and not himself.  The great feats of God are love and faithfulness.  By such actions, I am brought to my knees in amazement.  All the great feats of people never match the greatness of God, who, although greater than anyone, made himself less that everyone.  The incarnation of Christ shows this best.  May my awe of your greatness inspire a desire to join in your greatness by learning your humility, Lord.


Jesus' explanation of only doing what he sees the Father doing has typically only meant something about the unity of the Trinity to me.  I saw them as words explaining how the Son and the Father are one.  I had thought Jesus was merely proving his equality with his Father so he could show his authority over the Pharisees.  It sounded almost like he was saying, "Well, at least I am doing what God wants while you are not."

These are not small things.  Proof for the Trinity and Jesus' authority are entirely necessary for my faith.  However, Jesus did not come primarily to prove something or to show his authority.  He came so that I might have life and have it abundantly.  He came to set me free.  Free for what?  Free to live as he and the Father live.  Only God can be God to be sure, but he invites me to taste in the love and humility that make the Trinity so good.  In the end Jesus' words about only doing God's will are about what it means to really live.  Let me seek to do what you do, Lord, so that I might have life - real life.


Lately, I have been seeking peace.  Usually I equate peace with indifference or ease.  I think that I would be much more peaceful if I didn't care too much.  I think I would be more peaceful if I had some privacy and quiet or maybe a relaxing night with some friends.  I do not usually think that doing what God is doing would bring me peace.

What I think God is doing shows a lot of what I think about God.  If he is the cosmic police officer, then he is busy handing out tickets and punishing wrong-doing.  If he is the universal grandfather, he is gently sitting back watching his grandkids and giving them gifts while he allows someone or something else to parent them.  If he is a complete martyr, he is pleading for me to recognize his graciousness and goodness while not expecting much response from me.

What do I think God is doing?  One time I was trying to have a quiet time with God in the morning and my children were playing and laughing and making a racket.  I huffed off to my room by myself where I could concentrate.  I continued to have trouble hearing God and being with him.  Eventually I called out in frustration, "Where are you, Lord?"  He told me, "I'm playing with the kids.  What are you doing?"

It is not that God is merely playing all the time or that he is always doing something that I am not.  The point was that I would not find out what he is doing by being angry with my kids while doing something I deemed "good."  He still met me in my time with him and taught me how self-important I can become, but he also taught me that I need to stay near him and ask him in order to find out what he is doing and not just assume I know.

Much of what God has laid out for me to do is quite ordinary: raise kids, love my wife, do my job, help at home, daily seek his face, etc.  This is not merely "busy work" between what God is doing, but it is what God is doing.  He delights in the "small" things in themselves because they are what the "bigger" things are built with.  Actually, God's designation of what is small and big differs from mine often.  "What is highly valued among men is detestable to God." (Luke 16:15)

Humility enables me to see what God is doing.  Pride blinds me to God's desires and actions.  Really, pride is the condition of indifference or aversion to what God is doing.  Humility is a constant awareness of what God is doing with the intention of joining him.  Jesus could do what his Father was doing because he made it his job to know what God is doing.  He communed regularly with his Father and encouraged his disciples to do the same.

Pride narrows my view to my own actions and intentions.  I only see what I want and seek to get it at whatever cost.  Pride cannot see what anyone else is doing, only what how others are interfering with what I am doing.  Pride makes it impossible to do what other people are doing.  It only uses other people and God to further my own actions.

Humility broadens my view to see the actions and desires of God and other people.  It seeks to further others' desires and intentions.  Humility is impossible without a God who takes care of my needs and desires.  When I realize my place in God's heart and in God's kingdom, I find that I what to work for him and with him more than anything else.  This is humility.

Lord, I realize how much I struggle with pride when I seek to do what you are doing.  I worry about getting what I want.  I worry about missing out on good things.  I get frustrated when things don't go my way.  But peace and joy are found not with pride, but only with asking, seeking, and training to be like Jesus, who did nothing for himself, but always did what you wanted.  Only in you and with you will I find love, joy, and peace, and life.  Amen.


Do you trust God enough to do what he is doing?  Do you think that a life like Jesus would be full of peace and joy or cramped and dull?

Humility: The Glory of the Creature

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
   come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
   It is he who made us, and we are his;
  we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  (Psalm 100:1-3) 

Whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  (Matthew 10:39) 

Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is, from the very nature of things, the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue.  And so pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil.

 When the serpent breathed the poison of his pride, the desire to be as God, into the hearts of our first parents, that they too fell from their high estate into all the wretchedness in which man is now sunk. In heaven and earth, pride, self-exaltation, is the gate and the birth, and the curse, of hell.  Hence it follows that nothing can be our redemption, but the restoration of the 'lost humility, the original and only true relation of the creature to its God. And so Jesus came to bring humility back to earth, to make us partakers of it, and by it to save us. . . .  His humility gave His death its value, and so became our redemption. . . .  His humility is our salvation. His salvation is our humility.

[Humility] is not a something which we bring to God, or He bestows; it is simply the sense of entire nothingness, which comes when we see how truly God is all, and in which we make way for God to be all.

This humility is not a thing that will come of itself, but that it must be made the object of special desire and prayer and faith and practice.  (From Humility, Chapter 1, Andrew Murray)

 At the heart of praise and worship is this knowledge: the Lord is God alone.  A necessary attendant to this knowledge is the knowledge of my "creature-liness."  I am not my own.  I was made by God.  I belong to God.  I am "pastured" and sustained by God.  Praise and worship focused on God and not on performance - "How am I doing?", "How do I look?", "What do people think of me?" - teaches humility.  May God grant me the knowledge - the actual experiential, hands-on knowledge - that the Lord alone is God.


When Jesus talks about losing one's life, some parallels in surrounding literature are a centurion who betrays his army and country, or the daughter of a priest who becomes a whore.  The loss is to throw away what is precious to oneself; to render it completely useless.  In trying to make my own way, I render my life an empty betrayal; I throw away what is most precious in myself.  When I lay my life down as nothing before God, seeing it as refuse and dung in comparison to knowing him in Christ, I can begin to know what my life is for and what I have been made to do. Humility is losing my life so I can find my life.  May my life be nothing to me in the light of Christ my Lord.


Humility is simply the other side of faith.  When I "see how God truly is,"  humility is the "sense of entire nothingness" that comes.  It is not a matter of self-deprecation (which, in my experience, is a pride-based humility, as strange as that sounds) but a loss of self-consciousness and worry in the light of God's glory and goodness.  It is freedom.

This freedom was coaxed out of our hands by Satan.  The "high estate" of Adam and Eve was their humility. It is the true nobility of human beings.  In contrast, "self-exaltation is the gate and the birth, and the curse, of hell."  This is the great Fall of man: from humility to pride.  I am still facing the fall.  Like in free-fall, many no longer sense their downward plummet until they are caught by the wind of the Spirit which propels them upward into humility or hit the bottom of the fall of pride: misery and death.

When Paul says that everything that does not come from faith is sin, he is also saying that humility supports all other virtues.  Humility is the underside of faith, making virtue possible and rendering sin unappealing and ineffective.  When God is who he should be, then I can become who I should be.  Faith in God brings humility and humility supports faith.

Lord, let humility become the object of my desire and prayer and practice.  Let me give everything up for this pearl.  Work it into my life, Father.  I am yours.  Amen.


As you think about God or worship him or pray to him, do you ever become aware of a "sense of entire nothingness?"  Do you resist humility or embrace it?  Do you see it as painful necessity or your "true nobility?"

Devoting Oneself to Humility: Life's Purpose

Morning


(Pray)
But from everlasting to everlasting

  the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,

  and his righteousness with their children’s children—

with those who keep his covenant

  and remember to obey his precepts.

The LORD has established his throne in heaven,

   and his kingdom rules over all.

Praise the LORD, you his angels,

  you mighty ones who do his bidding,

  who obey his word.

Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,

  you his servants who do his will.

Praise the LORD, all his works

  everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the LORD, O my soul.


(Praise the Lord.  From the Psalm say to God, "Lord, you are . . . .")


Midday


“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.  


“I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.  


“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”  (Matthew 18:15-20)


(Think of a time in which you have protected from shame and embarrassment by a person correcting your privately.  Think about how carefully you've approached someone you deeply care about to correct them without offending or discouraging them.)


Evening


If we are indeed to be humble, not only before God but towards men, if humility is to be our joy, we must see that it is not only the mark of shame, because of sin, but, apart from all sin, a being clothed upon with the very beauty and blessedness of heaven and of Jesus. We shall see that just as Jesus found His glory in taking the form of a servant, so when He said to us, "Whosoever would be first among you, shall be your servant," He simply taught us the blessed truth that there is nothing so divine and heavenly as being the servant and helper of all. The faithful servant, who recognizes his position, finds a real pleasure in supplying the wants of the master or his guests. When we see that humility is something infinitely deeper than contrition, and accept it as our participation in the life of Jesus, we shall begin to learn that it is our true nobility, and that to prove it in being servants of all is the highest fulfillment of our destiny, as men created in the image of God.  (Andrew Murray, Humility, Introduction)


(Have you found times in which you see or experience humility as "something infinitely deeper than contrition" and as "our true nobility?"  How might your treatment of other people show such a humility that is "the very beauty and blessedness of heaven and of Jesus?")

†          †          †  

I think it may not be mere poetry  in Psalm 103 where "You mighty ones" are the ones "who do his bidding" and "who obey his word."  This contradicts how I picture mighty people.  I tend to think of people who do not have to answer to anyone.  I tend to think of people who make the rules rather than obey them.  I find myself thinking the heresy "Might makes right."


Such ideas spill over into my ideas about God as well.  When he is "high and lifted up," he is above most of my petty concerns and thoughts.  When he is a "mighty warrior," he overcomes his enemies with a mere breath.  There is truth in these statements, but only partial truth.  Jesus shows me a God who is so beyond me, he can care for each person, even each flower and bird, as if it were his very own special child or pet or plant.  Jesus shows a God who is not merely mighty, but mighty to save.  His power and might are not bent toward destruction, but toward kindness and restoration.


These mighty ones who do his bidding, these angelic hosts who are servants who do his will are made mighty by their humility.  The one they serve makes them mighty.  A person who serves only himself is not mighty, but selfish.  A person who makes his own rules is not great, but foolish.  Mighty ones are mighty because of the one they serve, who Himself is mighty through humility and its cousins: kindness, gentleness, and patience.


This humility commands that I show great kindness and patience to those who sin and who are caught in sin. It is no accident that Jesus tells me, "First take the plant out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."  (Matthew 6:5)  One aspect of humility is realizing how deeply I am indebted to God for forgiveness.  Such forgiveness leaves me no room for vengeance or malice against my neighbor, whoever they are.


But more than that, I have a great responsibility to be a messenger of God's humility and kindness in all that I do.  I am to restrain (bind) evil where I see it hurting people.  Sometimes this calls for confrontation, but it is always with a goal of forgiveness and restoration.  I am to free (loose) the goodness where I see it in others. Such goodness leads to prayer and action in agreement with God and with one another.  Isn't this what God does as well?

If I am binding and loosening as God would have me to, then I am working with him.  What I bind and loose on earth will also be so in the heavens.  I will be working with him through his Spirit and in conjunction with "the mighty ones who do his bidding."  My heart will pray "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" and my hands will work out such a salvation in my life and in others with God's hands over mine.


This is the heart of "participation in the life of Jesus" through humility: God's hands working over mine.  Much like a child learning to write, a parent or teacher will place his hands over the child's to show how to hold the pencil and write the words.  Whatever work that I do is meant to be lined up with God's desires.  This is how Jesus lived.  His life was freedom, love, joy and peace.  This is the bliss of heaven, where his angels  are "servants who do his will."  This is what I am made for, my "true nobility."


Nobility is conferred with a title.  The title that grants me most dignity is not my job title or my education or my accomplishments or my honor in my family or friends.  The title that gives the most dignity and nobility to my life is "Servant of God and all people."  Humility makes this title real and not just words, so that the nobility is true and not mere pretense.  This is what life is for.


Lord, make me like Jesus, who came as the servant to all.  Let humility be a quality in my life, how I approach you and also everyone around me.  Make me mighty as you are mighty.  If I bind or loose, let it be with those mighty ones who do your will, so that whatever I do will not just be a game I play on earth, but a stronghold established in heaven.  I know I can do this only by remaining close to you, Father.  I pray this in your name, strong and mighty, meek and lowly.  Amen.

Devoting Oneself to Humility: Inspired by Jesus

Morning


(Pray)

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

  so great is his love for those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,

  so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,

  so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

for he knows how we are formed,

   he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass,

   he flourishes like a flower of the field

the wind blows over it and it is gone,

   and its place remembers it no more.  (Psalm 103:11-15)


(Begin your day with worship.  Praise the Lord.  Thank him using this Psalm.)


Midday

"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.  What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost."  (Matthew 18:10-14)

(Think about a time when a pet dear to you wandered away or got lost.  Remember how concerned you were.)

Evening

In these meditations I have, for more than one reason, almost exclusively directed attention to the humility that becomes us as creatures. It is not only that the connection between humility and sin is so abundantly set forth in all our religious teaching, but because I believe that for the fullness of the Christian life it is indispensable that prominence be given to the other aspect. If Jesus is indeed to be our example in His lowliness, we need to understand the principles in which it was rooted, and in which we find the common ground on which we stand with Him, and in which our likeness to Him is to be attained.   (Andrew Murray, Humility, Introduction)

(Have you experienced a humility that brings "the fullness of the Christian life" apart from times of struggle with sin?  How does it remind you of Jesus "in his lowliness?")

†          †          †  

My son told me the other day that the major component of dust that we clean around the house is skin and hair.  With all the dust in our house, it seems that we are "returning to the dust" rather quickly.  What a reminder of what I am made of!  Much of what flies around in the air and finds its home under the beds and on top of window sills is what I am made of.

Humility has is foundation in dust.  Humus is "earth" in Latin.  Its roots are not so much about dust, but about being lowly or "on the ground,"  but dust is about as low as you go.  My weakness is not merely from my sinfulness, but is built into my being.  Such weakness is built in to inspire humility in my life.  I am dust.

When one of our dogs had puppies, one had a lot of health problems and had to be put down.  She was called "Grace."  Because she couldn't eat well and had so much trouble she took more time than the others and inspired our pity.  Our attention was on her because of her weakness, her "lost-ness."  We really hoped we could overcome them, but we couldn't.  That was a hard morning.

I imagine that the angels who "always see the face of [the] Father" always have his attention.  He is concerned about everyone, but especially his "little ones."  Their weakness inspires his pity, his mercy.  Like children that trust him to care for them and almost take it for granted (and actually do take it for granted at times), God's "little ones" have his attention and concern, much like Grace had ours.  God carefully watches those who humble themselves like children before him.

Jesus lets me see how humility draws that heart of God.  Lowliness keeps the Father closely following my life.  If I think I can "go it" without him, he will let me try.  If I remember how I am formed from dust and how my weakness shows my need of God, he will eagerly search for me, much like a shepherd feverishly looks for his lost sheep.  Jesus shows a God who cares deeply for humility.

One of the dangers of associating humility too closely with my sinfulness is that it becomes equated with humiliation.  Sometimes humiliation can bring about humility, but more often it brings resentment.  When God wants to humble me, he doesn't want to humiliate me.  He wants me to find fullness and life, not emptiness and misery.  He wants to lift me up, not break me.

Sometimes I cannot see the difference in what I experience, but I can tell the difference in what I hear as I go through such times.  What I mean is that the voice of God does not say "I told you so" or "Now you're getting what you got coming."  He aches and hurts with me.  The lower I go, the closer I find him.  Sometimes the pain blocks out his voice, but he never abandons me.  He always sends signs of his mercy.  I may not notice immediately, but in hindsight I am amazed at his provision.

When God humbles me, I find that joy is near.  I suppose that I may "humiliate" myself when I am being humble in some people's opinions, but that is what happens when you're in love.  That is what happens when you are truly grateful.  That is what happens when you've seen "the Pit" and been snatched from it.  That is what Jesus meant when he said, "Whoever humbles himself will be exalted, but whoever exalts himself will be humbled."  God humbles me with his greatness, his goodness, and his mercy, not with my emptiness, my unworthiness, and my misery.  Such lowliness which sees only God's greatness is that humility of Jesus.

Lord, bring me low by raising my vision of you.  You know how I am formed.  Show me the depth of your goodness, the breadth of your love, and the height of your glory in whatever way I can handle.  Today and forever.  Amen.

Devoting Oneself to Humility: Grace

Morning

(Pray)

The LORD works righteousness and justice

  for all the oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses,

  his deeds to the people of Israel:

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,

  slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse,

  nor will he harbor his anger forever;

he does not treat us as our sins deserve

  or repay us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:6-10)

(Worship God through this Psalm.  Thank him for one thing mentioned.  Praise him, saying, "Lord, you are. . . .")

Midday

And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.  But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.  

Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!  If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.  And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.  (Matthew 18:5-9)

(Think about welcoming a child or receiving someone as a guest.  Ponder the difference between that welcome as leading them astray or trapping them.)

Evening

In our ordinary religious teaching, the second aspect [humility from being a sinner] has been too exclusively put in the foreground, so that some have even gone to the extreme of saying that we must keep sinning if we are indeed to keep humble. Others again have thought that the strength of self-condemnation is the secret of humility. And the Christian life has suffered loss, where believers have not been distinctly guided to see that, even in our relation as creatures, nothing is more natural and beautiful and blessed than to be nothing, that God may be all; or where it has not been made clear that it is not sin that humbles most, but grace, and that it is the soul, led through its sinfulness to be occupied with God in His wonderful glory as God, as Creator and Redeemer, that will truly take the lowest place before Him.  (Andrew Murray, Humility, Introduction)


(How has God humbled you through his grace as opposed to through your sin?  What needs to be pruned from your life so that you can accept this grace for yourself and for others?)

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The law of Moses has long seemed a scattered collection of almost random laws and sayings to me.  I have not taken it too seriously because I have thought it had little to do with the gospel I now live under.  I have even thought that the law is opposed to the gospel.  Between these influences, I did not take much time or effort to understand the law, the wisdom, or the prophets.


Meditating on Psalm 119 changed all of that.  I saw and heard their love of God and his law.  I began to realize that the God who wrote the law was the same as the God of Jesus.  I began to realize that when he "made known his ways to Moses," his ways were "compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love."  I saw that this was the way to understand the law and my God.  He is a God of grace.

The harshest punishments come to people who lead others astray.  A person who takes advantage of another person's trust, especially a child's, is severely punished.  In God's kingdom, this is also the case.  Jesus rightly saw that a humble person is also a vulnerable person.  Vulnerability is  an essential part of humility.  It also draws me into God's grace.


One of the most wonderful aspects of grace is how it frees me from self-condemnation and self-absorption.  Grace opens my heart up to gratitude.  Grace opens my eyes to the goodness of God's ways.  Grace allows me to rest in God.  When my sin is my focus, I find regret instead of gratitude, God's ways worry me, and I am restless.  I think vulnerability will help me to receive this grace instead of being preoccupied with my sin.


So I see this movement.  As I come to understand that God's ways are full of compassion and grace, I am willing to be vulnerable.  As I become more vulnerable, I can face my sin by embracing God's grace.  When I step out on the strength of God's grace, I am once again amazed at how he faithfully responds and upholds me.  God's grace and my vulnerability work together to form a life of praise and thanksgiving.


Lord, open my eyes to your compassionate ways.  Open my heart with vulnerability to you.  Fill me with your grace and wash out my sin.  Let me live to worship you.  Amen.

Devoting Oneself to Humility: Motives

Morning

(Pray)

Praise the LORD, O my soul;

   all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the LORD, O my soul,

  and forget not all his benefits—

 who forgives all your sins

  and heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit

  and crowns you with love and compassion,

who satisfies your desires with good things

  so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:1-5)


(Praise the Lord.  Thank him for one thing or remember one wonderful thing about him.  Say, "Lord, thank you for . . ."  or "Lord, you are . . . ."  Use the Psalm as your starting place.)


Midday

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 18:1-4)

(Take time to watch a child.  Remember your own childhood.  Think of God as your "daddy.")

Evening

There are three great motives that urge us to humility. It becomes me as a creature, as a sinner, and as a saint. The first we see in the heavenly hosts, in un-fallen man, in Jesus as Son of Man. The second appeals to us in our fallen state, and points out the only way through which we can return to our right place as creatures. In the third we have the mystery of grace, which teaches us that, as we lose ourselves in the overwhelming greatness of redeeming love, humility becomes to us the consummation of everlasting blessedness and adoration.  (Andrew Murray, Humility, Introduction)

(Which motive for humility are you most familiar with?  Which motive draws you most?  Ask God to use these motives to deepen your humility.)

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Praise comes from humility.  Praise, like humility, comes from the three things mentioned in Murray's introduction.  I praise because I am a creature and God is my Maker.  I praise because I am a sinner and God is my Savior.  He "redeems my life from the pit."  I praise because I am a saint.  Praise is my destiny and life, so that my "youth is renewed like the eagles."  Praise comes from humility.

When I think about God as my "daddy," I have an image of my hand in his.  He doesn't let go, nor does he get tired of holding my hand.  He doesn't get tired of me.  One of the parts of being a child is the expectation that a parent will be there to watch over me, help me, and delight in me.  To humble myself like a child is to expect God's love and care and never doubt it.  If I feel lost, I will wait for him (and maybe cry, too).  If I feel him near, I will engage in the never-ceasing questions and the requests of "Let me show you this, daddy."


I have been drawn into humility from my sinner side recently.  Struggling with anger and depression opens up all sorts of bad habits and thoughts.  Yesterday, I just became aware of how weak I am.  My daughter sprained he ankle and it now having to strengthen it.  The damage is healed, but now it is somewhat weak.  I feel I am there with a number of my struggles.  God has healed a number of hurts and broken places, but now I remain weak and easily hurt myself over and over.


Strengthening requires humility.  As a recovering sinner, I have to rely on God's grace and strength to come into me so I can recover.  I cannot recover on my own.  Yet, he gives me exercises I can do to accept that strength that he sends.  I cannot recover without exercising.  Exercising (and resting) build strength.  Troubles and challenges show me how much I have come to rely on God's strengthening grace.  I must continue to do my "therapy," however before I can meet such troubles well.  As a recovering sinner, I am always exercising and resting in God's grace.  "Continue to  out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you."  (Philippians 2:12-13)


Lord, I cannot completely forget all your benefits because I need them so much.  Your healing grace, your forgiving grace, your redeeming grace, your satisfying grace is what I long for and need.  The less I forget, the more I stand in praise, holding your hand, allowing you to lead me in eternal living at your side.  I pray for my own complete recovery.  Amen.