by G. D. Watson
If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25
If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He will put on you such demands of obedience that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He seems to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.
Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.
Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.
Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day-to-day basis, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.
The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.
God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work which you have done; this to teach you the message of the Cross, humility, and something of the value of being cloaked with His nature.
The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over.
So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.
God will take you at your word. If you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and let other people say and do many things that you cannot. Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways which others are not dealt with. However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven, the high calling of God.
That article is EXCELLENT Mike! Thank you for bringing it to our attention. Humility is most definately a work produced by God in the heart of His children. The crucibles that God uses are rarely ever pleasant, but then gold is not purified apart from the fire eh?
I hurt in the crucible. All of us do. When in the flames it can be devastating. That is, it is devastating without the grace of God. It is all to produce Christlikeness and humility in our hearts. And that is worth it everytime.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
There is no other way of saying it, Mike: I am humbled by your link to this article. Blessings to you and yours, -bill
Happy to do it Bill. It’s a fine post and it is something all believers need to take to heart and make it their own.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
I think true humility isn’t even aware of itself and becomes a natural attribute for those who focus on having a deep intimacy with Christ. If He is your focus all of His attributes will become yours. I feel you must seek Christ alone, the minute you seek humility or anything else, then your focus wavers.
terrylynn,
That is good insight. When we are self-aware then we have moved away from that deep center of humility where we exist for God’s glory alone. Good comment.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
That’s hitting the nail on the head, terrilynn! Just as Christ emptied Himself, so must we. That’s easy to type into this little comment box. Much harder to live out in life. But, if we seek Christ alone, we are certainly moving in the right direction.
Great discussion, Mike! May your day be fruitful and may your heart be joyful in this another beautiful day the Lord has made!
Puritan Cotton Mather reminds us to see pride for what it is – the face of the devil himself and “as infinitely dangerous, and ready to provoke God to deprive me of my capacities and opportunities.”
http://spurgeon.wordpress.com/2006/06/21/seeing-the-ugliness-of-spiritual-pride/
Thank you Bill – you too!
spurgeon – oh, if only we could conceptualize how wicked pride is in the eyes of God!
“Every time we look to the cross Christ seems to be saying to us, ‘I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.’ Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size.”
- John Stott, The Message of Galatians, p. 179.
spurgeon,
That is why we still must preach the gospel and have it preached to us quite often.The Holy Spirit makes that huge contrast between God’s Righteousness and our lack of Righteousness outside of His grace apparent to our hearts. Yes, we need to be cut down to size. We need to be where Isaiah was, I am ruined! Then God can use us.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
Mike,
Amen! It’s a daily battle to begin each day being close to the Cross and humbled by its message. It’s too easy to leave for work each day having forgotten humility. If it doesn’t begin each morning in our quiet time, when will it through the day?
Tony
Tony,
I think it starts when I swing my legs over the edge of the bed each morning after shutting off that blasted alarm clock. If I don’t direct my heart upwards and start praising God right then, then I struggle. If I enter my quiet time with God in praise and worship then I will exit properful focused. However, there are days when I am so self-focused that I couldn’t tell you what I read or prayed during my quiet time because I was day-dreaming so much. However, God usually (nearly always) works things out during my day as only He can to get me on my knees and repenting.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
Mike,
Good article reference. The issue of false humility is dangerous, especially in light of the deceitfulness of our hearts (Jer. 17.9). I recently had my pride ‘exposed’ and wrote about it here: http://asahel.wordpress.com/2006/05/02/pride-wrapped-in-humilitytripping-over-grace/
…along the same lines..
thanks for your work Mike.
/erik
Thanks erik! Your post is very good. Graciously accepting offers or gifts is a mark of humility. It also blesses the giver as it further humbles us. Thanks for your kind words erik and you keep up your fine work as well.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff