Project Description

2016/09

Humility

“Be clothed with humility”
(1 Peter 5:5)

The essence of true humility is contentment with being as nothing that Christ may be all in all.  The humble heart is content that Christ is its only wisdom and righteousness. It renounces all self-acclaim and receives the Lord Jesus Christ as its only light, life, and salvation. The soul of the humble cries: ‘In the Lord have I righteousness and strength’ (Isaiah 45:24). This was the disposition of the apostle Paul who looked on himself as the chief of sinners and the least of saints. His heart-felt cry: ‘I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Philippians 3:8), was humble recognition that all he is and has, is from the Lord. His testimony is: ‘by the grace of God I am what I am….I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me’ (1Corinthians 15:10).

The humble soul is the object of the Lord’s love and care. The eye of the Lord is toward the lowly and contrite heart for He says: ‘to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembleth at my word’ (Isaiah 66:2). His ear also is toward the lowly. ‘Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble; thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear’ (Psalm 10:17). ‘Though the Lord be high, he hath respect unto the lowly’ (Psalm 138:6).

Christ was meek and lowly and content to appear in the form of a servant. A humble spirit then manifests a Christ-like soul and so it is not surprising that God has regard to such. The Saviour is the greatest pattern of this very grace and He said: ‘Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart’ (Matthew11:29). He has left us an example that we should follow in His steps. When the Spirit of Christ enters the heart, He stamps the moral likeness and image of Christ upon it. Abraham, the father of the faithful, manifested it in prayer when he cried: ‘Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes’(Genesis 18:27). His grandson Jacob expressed it in the words: ‘I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant’ (Genesis 32:10).

The more of Christ in the life, the more humility; the less of Christ, the more pride. So to be clothed with humility, you must have clear views of Him. When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up he cried out: ‘Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips…for mine eyes have seen the King…’ (Isaiah 6:5). God promises to give grace to the humble (1Peter 5:5). The richest treasures of His grace are possessed by them.

Rev Leslie Curran.