False humility and Christians
“… the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve …”
When Charles Dickens wrote the classic novel “David Copperfield”, he created an unattractive character called Uriah Heep – a greedy, insincere, ambitious manipulator who constantly proclaimed his “humbleness”. But Uriah Heep was not humble. He was proud, and self-absorbed and self-serving. The words that came out of his mouth were false. Someone who is really humble is not even aware of their humility. They aren’t absorbed with themselves at all.
While someone is preoccupied with thoughts of self, they will never be free of self. While someone is preoccupied with their failings, they will never be free of self. While someone is impressed with their own achievements and talent, they will never be free of self.
We have all inherited a fallen nature. That great flaw alone ensures that we will never overcome self in our own strength. Self cannot cast out self. You will never speak humility into being. You will never grit your teeth and “make it happen”. Humility has to be worked into you. It is a work of the Spirit. God has to do for us what we are incapable of doing for ourselves.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less”
~ C S Lewis
As Christians, legally, we are dead in Christ. God’s work is to bring us to the place where our experience matches our legal right-standing.
God is engineering every experience to bring us to an end of ourselves.
Faith and humility are akin in the Bible. They are the place of dependence on God. All Christian virtue flows from this happy state.
Jesus came to earth as a servant. He tells us to copy Him. That is what we are to admire most about Him, and what we are to fix our hearts and minds upon. We are to appreciate that God is working every situation to increase our focus on Jesus, and our dependence on Him.
Our responsibility is to yield to the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us to “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God”. [James 4:10 and 1 Peter 5:6].
Nothing is more blessed than to be nothing. When you are nothing then God is everything. And you are set free.
James 4:10
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.
1 Peter 5:6
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.
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