February 14 (Andrew Murray’s devotional)
In the life of earnest Christians, of those who pursue and profess holiness, humility ought to be the chief mark of their uprightness. It is often said that it is not so . May not one reason be that in the teaching and example of the church, it has never been given the place of supreme importance it deserves? And that this, again, is owing to the neglect of this truth, that strong as sin is as a motive to humility there is one of still wider and mightier influence, that which makes the angels, that which makes Jesus, that which makes the holiest of saints in heaven, so humble: that the first and chief mark of the relation of the creature, the secret of his blessedness, is the humility and nothingness which leaves God free to be all? . . . This humility is not a thing that will come of itself; it must be made the object of special desire, prayer, faith and practice. . . . Let us admit that there is nothing so natural in man, nothing so insidious and hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous, as pride . Let us feel that nothing but a very determined and persevering waiting on God and Christ will discover how lacking we are in the grace of humility and how impotent to obtain what we seek. . . . And let us believe that, when we are broken down under a sense of our pride, and our impotence to cast it out, Jesus Christ Himself will come to impart this grace to us.
(from Andrew Murray’s book) Humility
From the Book "The Power of the spirit" by William Law
First published ln-1761, re-published by Andrew Murray in 1896
Re-published by C L C n 1967 with a foreword by Norman Grubb
Eph 4:20-23 Christ, assuming that you have really heard Him and been taught by Him...Strip yourselves of your former nature, put off and discard your old un-renewed self which characterized your previous manner of life. . .And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind. . .
Chapter Thirteen
Self and lts Pride
Oppose the Spirit
All the vices of fallen angels and men have their root in the proud atheism of self which has rejected God as its only life and power. Men are dead to God because they are living to self. Self-love, self-esteem, and self-seeking are the essence and the life of pride; and the Devil, the father of pride, is never absent from these passions, nor without an influence in them, Without a death to self, there is no escape from Satan's power over us. Wherever self-abilities are allowed a share in Christian service or worship, there the satanic spirit of pride has its power in the Church. On the other hand, all the virtues of the heavenly life are the virtues of humility. Not a joy or glory or praise of the redeemed but has its birth in humility. It is humility alone that makes the impassable gulf between heaven and hell. No angels are in heaven but because humility is in all their breath; no devils are in hell but because the fire of pride has corrupted their whole life. Humility places man in that posture before God of an open heart, thankfully receiving the inward breathings of divine life and light and love. Pride shuts every man up to himself, bringing a death to all that is of God. "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God" (James 4:5). Herein lies the great struggle for eternal life: pride and humility are the two master powers, the two kingdoms in strife for the eternal possession of man. Every son of Adam is in the service of self, regardless of education or position in life, until a humility that comes solely from heaven has become his redemption through the indwelling Christ. Until then, all will be done by the right hand only that the left hand may know it. Nor can humility be cultivated through a sound head-knowledge of Scripture words and doctrines. The only true humility which the world has ever seen is that of the meek and lowly Lamb of God: and no man can have the least degree of this humility except from the redeeming life of Christ. He only fights the good fight of faith whose strife is that the self-idolatrous nature which he received from Adam may be brought to death through the power of the cross, that Christ's own supernatural humility may come to life within him. The enemies to man's rising out of the fall of Adam are many. But the supreme enemy, called Antichrist, is self-exaltation. There has been much speculation to see where and what Antichrist is or by what marks he may be recognized. To know with certainty what he is not, one need only read this short description which Christ gives of Himself “ I can do nothing of myself . . , I came nor to do my own will . . . I seek not my own glory , . . I am meek and lowly of heart" (John 5:30, 8:50; Matt. 11:29). Now if this be Christ, then self -exaltation, being in the highest and fullest opposition, must be that spirit of Antichrist that opposes and withstands the whole nature and Spirit of Christ. And although that particular man who is to be the ultimate embodiment of this spirit may not be yet upon the earth; nevertheless, no man need look any further than his own heart to find the same Antichrist which John said was "already in the world" (1 John 4:3) in his own day. What therefore has everyone so much to fear, to renounce and abhor, as every inward breathing of self-exaltation, and every outward work that proceeds from it? Now at what things shall a man look to see that working of self from which pride gains its power to hinder the birth and life of the humble Jesus in his soul? Shall he call the pomp and vanities of the world the highest works of self-adoration? Shall he look at the thirst for riches and honor to see the pride that has the most of Antichrist in it? By no means. These are shameful enough marks of the vain heart of man; yet, comparatively speaking, they are but the skin-deep follies of that pride which the fall of man has begotten and brought forth within him. To discover the deepest root and iron strength of pride and self-exaltation) one must enter into the secret chamber of man's soul, where the Spirit of God, who alone gives humility and meek submission, was denied through Adam's sin, thus bringing that death which came upon all men, for all have sinned. Satan's own spirit of self-exaltation became the strong man that kept charge of the house, until a stronger than he should regain possession. Here in man's innermost being, self had its awful birth, and established its throne, reigning over a kingdom of secret pride, of which all outward pomp and vanities are but its childish, transitory playthings. "It is not those things from without that defile a man" (Mark 7:I5), said Christ, "but out of the heart comes all the evil of man's defilement" (Matt. I5:18). The inward strong man of pride, the diabolical self, has his higher works within; he dwells in the strength of the heart, and here every power and faculty of the soul offers continual incense to him. Memory is the faithful repository of all the fine things that self has ever done, and lest any of them should be lost or forgotten, memory is continually setting them before self's eyes. Man's intellect has all the world before it, yet goes after nothing but as self sends it, ever seeking new projects to enlarge its dominion. Imagination, as the last and truest support of self , lays unseen worlds at his feet, and crowns him with secret revenges and fancied honors. This is that satanic, natural self that must be denied and crucified, or there can be no disciple of Christ. There is no plainer interpretation than this that can be put upon the words of Jesus, "Except a man deny self, and take up the cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 9:23, 14:27). So great is the blindness which pride brings to the soul, that helpless creatures feel exalted because of natural abilities that are given them by God, and boast of such things as though they were their own. No man has the power to do any thing, except by a life that every moment is loaned to him from God: he has no more power of his own to breathe or move a hand than to stop the earth or extinguish the sun. This is the dependent, helpless poverty of man's state, which is a good reason for humility. Since it is God who "gives to all men life, and breath and all that we possess" (Acts 17:25); to ascribe glory to ourselves for these things is to be guilty both of stealing and lying. For pride takes to ourselves those things which only belong to God, and in denying the truth of our helpless dependence upon Him, we pretend to be something that we are not. What is the result of this pride which blinds us to our true condition? We reason ourselves into all kinds of misery making our lives the tools of unnecessary desires. Seeking after imaginary happiness, creating to ourselves a thousand unnatural needs, amusing our hearts with false hopes and insatiable passions, envying one another, we bring distress of every sort upon ourselves. Let any man but look back upon his own life and see what jealous ambitions, what vain thoughts, what desires have taken up the greater part of his life! Let him consider how foolish he has been in his words and manner of living, how often he has rejected reason to follow lust and passion, how seldom he has been able to please himself, and how often he has been displeased with others; how soon he has changed his mind, hated what he had formerly loved, and loved what he had formerly hated: how often he has been angry over trifles, pleased and displeased with the very same things, and so often changed from one vain entertainment or project to another! When any man honestly considers his life in this way, he will then realize that nothing is so unbecoming in any man as self-exaltation and pride. Perhaps there are very few people in the world who would nor rather choose to die than to have all their secret thoughts, lusts, follies, errors of judgment, vanities, false motives, uneasiness, hatred, envies, and corruptions made known to the world. And shall pride be entertained in a heart thus conscious of its own miserable condition and behavior?
It is not only the lust for possessions and the distinctions of life that nourish pride, but even devotions and charities' strivings after humility and goodness expose man to fresh and strong temptations of this evil spirit of self-exaltation. Every go; thought , every good action, exposes one to the assaults of vanity and self-satisfaction. None have more occasion to be afraid of the approaches of pride than those who have made some advances in a pious life: for pride can grow as well upon virtues as upon vices, and can even praise Itself while using words that seem to be praising God . Now what is it in the human soul that most of all hinders the death of this old man? What is it that above all strengthens and exalts the life of self, and makes it the master and governor of all the powers of the heart and soul? It is the imagined genius of self-will, the glory of learning, and the conceit of natural reason. These are the master builders of pride's temple in the heart of man, and like faithful priests they keep up the daily worship of the false god, self . Whereas man ought to be the temple of the living God, self sits there in the natural man, obsessed with his imagined abilities, and fiercely jealous of his own independent interests. Let it be clearly understood that all these magnificent corruptions of the natural man have their origin in his miserable fall from the life of God in his soul. Self-love, self-exaltation, self-will, and all the other partners of a natural reason would have had no more place among men than blindness, ignorance, and sickness, had man continued as he was created in the image of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Everything that then dwelt in him or came from him would have expressed only so much of God, and nothing of himself, and would have manifested nothing inwardly or outwardly but the heavenly Powers of his triune Creator. Man would then have had no more self-conscious realization of his own goodness than of his own creating power upon beholding the animals and trees about him or the stars above. Had that been mans perfect state without the fall, then consider how unreasonable and odious it must be for poor, sinful creatures to take delight in their own imagined greatness, while the highest and most glorious sons of heaven seek no other occupation than that of glorifying God alone. Pride is only the disorder of the fallen world, and has no place among other beings. It can only subsist where ignorance and sensuality, impurity ,reign. If man will boast of anything as his own, he must boast of his misery and sin, for there is nothing else but this that is his own property or his own doing. Let a man, when he is most delighted with himself, but contemplate our blessed Lord stretched out and nailed upon the cross; and then let him consider how absurd it must be for a heart full of pride and self-esteem to pray to God by virtue of the sufferings and death of the meek and lowly One. It is man's dreadful fall from the life of God in his soul that has given birth to self and the deceit of pride. These are the great enemies of man and God, because they oppose the Spirit of God, through whose gracious work in the heart alone man can receive eternal life, And when the lusts of the flesh have had their last day, and the pride of life has only a dead body to inhabit, the soul of man which remains will know at last that it has nothing of its own, nothing that can say "I do this, or I possess that." Then all that man has or does, will either be the glory of God manifested in him, or the power of hell in full possession of his soul. The time of man's playing with words and intellect, of grasping after positions among men or of amusing himself with the foolish toys of this vain world, can last no longer than he is able to eat and drink with the creatures of this world. When the time comes that he must take his leave of earthly treasure and honors, then all the stately structures which genius, learning, and proud imagination have painted before his own eyes or those of others must bear full witness to Solomon's "vanity of vanities, all is vanity (Eccl. 1:1). That humility which is despised by men now, and is so contrary to the spirit of this world, will then be known to be the root of that faith which overcomes the world, the flesh, and the devil. He who dares to be Poor and contemptible in the eyes of this present evil world in order to approve himself to God; who resists and rejects all human glory; who opposes the clamor of his passions; meekly bears all injuries and wrongs; and dares to wait for his reward until the invisible hand of God gives to every one his proper place: that one will be found to be the man of true wisdom in the coming day. He is the good soldier of Jesus Christ, who has fought the good fight of faith. Yet it cannot have been in his own strength or wisdom, but only as he has embraced the death of Christ as the crucifixion of his own devilish self, and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, has known the indwelling life of the meek and lowly Lamb of God in his soul.
