Humility

Humility is the mark of a true Christian. I recently read a book entitled "Christian Love." This book is full of excellent information. One of the topics addressed is humility, and it uses the following verse to do so.

"Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." [Matthew 11:29 ]

This statement, made by our Lord, ought to be the testimony of our lives. "Learn of Me." Let us go to the foot of Jesus Christ and behold how he was meek and lowly.

It was said of Moses that of all men there was none to be found that was meeker than he. He was the meekest man on the face of the earth, and yet he was not to be compared with the meekness of our Lord. In what way do we see the Lord's meekness manifested? "Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." [1 Peter 2:23 ] Christ turned the other cheek. The apostles creed says this, "Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell." This is the story of Christ's humiliation. This is the story of His meekness. So, in Matthew 11, the Lord is asking us, yea He is commanding us to do as He has done, to take up our cross and follow Him. "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." [ Matthew 11:29 - 30 ]

" Ye shall find rest for your souls." The author of the book, "Christian Love" said, " Affronts and injuries fly over him, and light upon the taller cedars, while the shrubs are safe. He sits so low that he cannot fall lower; so a humble man's fall upon the ground is no fall indeed, except in the apprehension of others; but it is a heavy and bruising fall from off the tower of self-conceit." May we be shrubs for the Lord. May we be lowly with our God. "Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud" [Proverbs 16:19] "When pride cometh than cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom." [Proverbs 11:2] Notice the verse above. You shall find rest. There is great peace and rest with those that do the will of God.

How are we to go up unto Heaven? Hugh Binnings says this: "Holiness is the ladder to go up to happiness by; or rather, our Lord Jesus Christ, as adorned with all these graces. How, the steps of it are mentioned in Matthew 5, and the lowest step that a soul first ascends to him by is poverty of spirit, or humility." "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. " Dear brethren, would that we would have this spirit. Would that we would be meek and Lowly.

What does this spirit look like? How do I live? What does my life portray?

First, the more you meditate on the Lord, the more you will reflect His graces. Do as Christ has done. Take up the basin and the towel. Die to yourselves.

Christ teaches us this spirit throughout the entire Bible. He says, when you come into a house, do not take the highest seat as the Pharisees do. Take the lowest seat. Because if you are lowly in heart, this seat will bring you no lower. You will not have as an attitude that I am too good to be sitting in that seat.

Also, remember this, mighty men, men of vision, the mightiest of all of mankind washed his disciple's feet. This is what mighty men are to do. If you will be truly mighty, you will be servant to all.

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." [ Philippians 2 : 5 ]Pray for the Lord to give you this heart.

"For thus sayeth the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." [Isaiah 57:15] Sola Deo Gloria

A Poem that Should Define All Christian Men

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you 

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; 

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 

But make allowance for their doubting too; 

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, 

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, 

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; 

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; 

If you can meet with triumph and disaster 

And treat those two imposters just the same; 

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken 

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, 

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, 

And lose, and start again at your beginnings 

And never breath a word about your loss; 

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 

To serve your turn long after they are gone, 

And so hold on when there is nothing in you 

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, 

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; 

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; 

If all men count with you, but none too much; 

If you can fill the unforgiving minute 

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - 

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, 

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son! 

Sola Deo Gloria