self-denial

good news! humility is God’s work

9/27/2006 · 0 comments

in living the life

This entry is part 10 of 10 in the series humility

This is the 10th post in a series on humility.

As I’ve already noted, it’s easy to get caught up in developing humility on my own, out of my strength and determination. And certainly, determination is required–but it’s a determination not to do but to be, to rest, to trust. Andrew Murray makes that clear as he continues his exploration of humility.

In the chapter “Humility and Faith,” he states that pride works against faith and that “faith and humility are at their root one” because both focus on God as all in all. The next step in Murray’s study is to consider humility and death to self. Murray writes, “Humility and death are in their very nature one: humility is the bud; in death the fruit is ripened to perfection.” The obvious question is “how do I let God become all in all? How do I die to self?” I love Murray’s answer, because it takes the pressure off of me: read the complete post

Tagged as: Andrew Murray, good news, grace, Holy Spirit, humility, Jesus, self-denial

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encouragement for the journey

9/6/2006 · 0 comments

in meditations

This entry is part 7 of 10 in the series humility

This is #7 in a series on humility.

I’ve got a sinus infection, so I’m going to keep this short.

I thought about writing a post today titled “help me, I’m dying”–not because I’m sick (though my head does feel as if it’s about to explode) but rather because practicing humility is killing my flesh, and it’s hard. It’s easy to get discouraged. Murray offers some much needed encouragement:

Let us be content with nothing less than taking each example of Jesus’ humility as the promise of what God will work in us, as the revelation of what the Spirit of Jesus will put within us. Allow each failure and shortcoming to only the more quickly turn us to the meek and lowly Lamb of God in the assurance that where He is enthroned in the heart, His humility and gentleness will be the streams of living water that flow from within us.

This is a timely reminder to me that I’m not doing this on my own–can’t do it on my own, in fact. Only by the power of the Spirit can true humility be worked in me. Praise God that it is His desire to do that work!

Tagged as: Andrew Murray, Holy Spirit, humility, Jesus, power, self-denial

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Jesus: humility in relationships

September 4, 2006
This entry is part 5 of 10 in the series humility

I’m seeing that a large part of growing in humility is learning to love people. I started to write “deal with people,” but deal sounds so…unloving. I don’t want to be one who sees others as something to deal with, as if people were obstacles; I want to love people as if they are the most important thing around. And that requires humility, total dependence on and trust in God. As my family will tell you, humility does not come naturally to me, and I know that only with God’s help can I walk consistently in humility and love in my relationships.

Reading Luke 4 today made this all the clearer. Jesus returns to Nazareth, his hometown, and goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath. It suddenly occurred to me: Jesus had history with these people–decades of history…

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Lazarus, Night of the Living Dead, and the joy of surrender

September 2, 2006
This entry is part 4 of 10 in the series humility

Just in case I was uncertain about focusing on humility right now, the Holy Spirit provided ample confirmation Thursday afternoon. I was a little discouraged and decided to read Oswald Chambers’ Utmost and Martin Luther’s By Faith Alone. Here’s what I found–

Luther, writing about Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, says, “Of all the sacrifices we can make, the one most acceptable to God is this: getting rid of sin, living a holy life, obeying God, and killing our corrupt nature.” I love how Luther finishes: “This is very painful and unpleasant for us to do.”…

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