Humility and holiness

-
Just the other day I picked up a copy of "Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness" by Andrew Murray (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2001). It's a good little read and has a lot to contribute to a discussion on holiness.
Humility is something I have struggled with my whole life. Not so much because I'm full of myself and want everyone to know about it. Quite the opposite. Rather, it's because I much prefer to not be in the spotlight, but I find that God has gifted me with particular talents and abilities that see me often in the public eye. So I have constantly battled with the issue of remaining humble, living a life that points to Christ and glorifies God through the power of the Spirit, but at the same time being confident in who I am in Christ. To be perfectly honest, I get that balance wrong at times. Sometimes I do promote myself rather than Christ and so humility gets left behind. Other times I "bury my talents" in the name of humility (which is not humility at all really) and so don't do what God has called me to do. This is a journey that I have been on all my life and haven't arrived there (wherever "there" is???) yet. However, here's what I have learned so far.
  1. Humility stems from seeing myself in the light of who God is.
  2. I am to "humble myself" before God.
  3. He is the one who will "lift me up" (James 4:10)
  4. Humility is the example of Christ and so part of what it means to be "Christlike" (Philippians 2:1-11).
I'm no expert on this topic, but I believe that a significant step on the pathway to "being holy, as God is holy" involves humility. Humbling ourselves before the God of all creation, just as Christ did, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, and he will lift us up into the very presence of the Triune God (Colossians 3:3). "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift" (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inerrent, Infallible, Inspired... Interpreted?

-
Image
I love Chopin. I love listening to his music, but I especially love playing his music. His Nocturnes in particular. There's something very satisfying about playing Chopin. He was a pianist, and every piece of music he wrote was for the piano, and so he "gets" what it's like to sit at a piano and wrestle with those 88 keys in front of you. He was a genius who knew how to get the most out of this instrument, and to challenge those who would want to call themselves a pianist (ever tried playing 12 notes at once with 10 fingers?). Perhaps what I like best, though, is the opportunity that playing Chopin gives me to really express myself through the music. It's like nothing else that I know and taps right into the depths of my emotions and indeed my soul. For me, it's very much a kind of prayer to play this music. Anyone who plays a musical instrument well understands (or should understand) that it's so much more than just the notes on the page. In fact, the b
Read more

An Exercise in Self-Deception

-
Image
The Salvation Army in Australia is in the midst of an historic journey. Since 1880 the Army has been active in this country, doing all it can to see God’s Kingdom come and his will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. For much of that time, for functional and practical reasons, there have been two territories; Australia Southern and Australia Eastern. Earlier this year it was announced that this would change. The two would become one. As at 1 June the Australia One project was launched and work was begun on joining the two territories together into one unified structure. This move excites me. Not just for the practical reasons, but for theological ones as well. This has the potential to be a symbol of unity to the rest of the Army and, indeed, the world. A symbol of how two different things can come together to form something new and, through that new thing, reform society. This can be a symbol of the incarnation; that moment in time and space when the divine and human were u
Read more