After my wife Susan went to be with Jesus on May 30, 2024, we gave most of her books to the friends of the library. There were a few that caught my attention which I saved. One of those books is Humility by Andrew Murray. The copy I have was published in 1961 (64 years ago). One of those “Oldies but Goodies.”
Just a week ago I spotted it on my bookshelf and picked it up. I realized that, as far as I can remember, I had never actually read it, even though I knew of it and had suggested it to other leaders, encouraging them to read it. I sat down and began reading. The more I read, the more I realized that I know very little about true, authentic, biblical, life-transforming humility.
“…let humility describe who you are…” I Peter 3:8 The Passion Translation. There are a lot of words that I, or others that know me, might use to describe me, but I dare say that humility would not be one of them!
As I usually do, I typed up words I underlined while reading. Here are those underlinings from the book. Just Andrew’s words, none of my own.
Going forward it’s my desire to read these words out loud to myself on a regular basis to understand what biblical humility really is and pray for that kind of humility in my life.
******************************************************************************************
“I stand amazed at the thought of how little humility is sought after as the distinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus. How much proof there is that humility is not esteemed the cardinal virtue, the only root from which the graces can grow, the one indispensable condition of true fellowship with Jesus. The life God bestows is imparted not once for all, but each moment continuously. The lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure.
There is nothing so natural to man, nothing so insidious and hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous, as pride. Making humility the chief thing we admire in Him, the chief thing we ask of Him, the one thing for which we sacrifice all else. Give up all the honor of men as Jesus did, The surrender of Himself (Jesus) to God, to allow Him to do in Him what He pleases, whatever men around might say to Him, or do to Him. Jesus never for a moment thought of seeking His honor, or asserting His power to vindicate Himself.
There is opened up to me in Jesus, a heavenly humility of which I have hardly known, and through which a heavenly blessedness you possibly have never yet tasted can come to me. How little this is preached. How little is it practiced, how little the lack of it is felt or confessed. The grace of humility, as an abiding characteristic, is scarcely to be seen. We never grasp the fact that the absence of this grace is the secret cause why the power of God cannot do its mighty work.
The church has so little taught it’s sons and daughters that the humility of Christ is the first of the virtues, the best of all the graces and powers of the Spirit. touchiness and haste and impatience, in self-defense and self-assertiveness, in sharp judgement and unkind words. Humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all. Be careful of the spirit in which opinions are given. The pride of holiness. cannot help seeing how far it is in advance of others. While the only sure mark of the presence of God, the disappearance of self, was all the time wanting.
Not to be occupied with your sin, but to be occupied with God, brings deliverance from self. The surrender and the waiting to let God work. Humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust. And every, 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—the All in All.
Let us accept gladly whatever can humble us before God or men;—this alone is the path to the glory of God. Giving yourself to seek only the glory that comes from God. It is in the death to self that humility is perfected; a humility which makes itself of no reputation, which empties out itself, and takes the form of a servant.
We must choose humility as our highest blessing. The highest lesson a believer has to learn is humility. Oh that every Christian who seeks to advance in holiness may remember this well. That whatever is said of us or done to us is lost and swallowed up in the thought that Jesus is all. Let humility be to us joy and gladness. Take every opportunity of humbling yourself before God and man. Reckon humility to be indeed the mother-virtue, your very first duty before God, the one perpetual safeguard of the soul, and set your heart upon its as the source of all blessing.
As the all-pervading life of God possesses you, there will be nothing so natural, and nothing so sweet, as to be nothing, with not a thought or wish for self, because all is occupied with Him who fills all. We never knew that humility, absolute, abiding, Christlike humility and self-effacement, pervading and marking our whole life with God and man, was the most essential element of the life of the holiness we sought for. May God teach us to believe that to be humble, to be nothing in His presence, is the highest attainment, and the fullest blessing, of the Christian life.”
Recent Comments