HUMILITY
by A. Gene Veal

"Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 18:4

"Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted."

Matthew 23:12

"You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry."

Psalm 10:17  

"When you are cast down, you will speak with confidence, and the humble person He will save."

Job 22:29

"It is better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud."

Proverbs 16:19

"He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble."

Proverbs 3:34  

"But He gives us greater grace. Therefore it says, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

James 4:6

"For He who requires blood remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the afflicted."

Psalm 9:12

"The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord are riches honor and life."

Proverbs 22:4

"The fear of the Lord is the instruction for wisdom, and before honor comes humility."

Proverbs 15:33

"A man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor."

Proverbs 29:23

"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time."

1 Peter 5:6
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Andrew Murray said: “Do you want to enter what people call ‘the higher life’?  Then go a step lower down.”

“The ears of barley that bear the richest grain always hang the lowest.”  Anonymous

“They that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves, cannot be proud.”  John Flavel

“The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority.  Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself.  He has accepted God’s estimate of his won life.  He knows he is as weak and helpless as God declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything.  That is his motto.”  A. W. Tozer

“Become nothing if you would become something.”  In His rules of success, you must stoop to rise, go down to get up. And shrink to grow.  Anonymous

DESIRED HUMILITY
by Charles H. Spurgeon

"He giveth grace unto the humble"
(James 4:6)

Humble hearts seek grace, and therefore they get it. Humble hearts yield to the sweet influences of grace, and so it is bestowed on them more and more largely. Humble hearts lie in the valleys where streams of grace are flowing, and hence they drink of them. Humble hearts are grateful for grace and give the LORD the glory of it, and hence it is consistent with His honor to give it to them.

Come, dear reader, take a lowly place. Be little in thine own esteem, that the LORD may make much of thee. Perhaps the sigh breaks out, "I fear I am not humble." It may be that this is the language of true humility. Some are proud of being humble, and this is one of the very worst sorts of pride. We are needy, helpless, undeserving, hell-deserving creatures, and if we are not humble we ought to be. Let us humble ourselves because of our sins against humility, and then the LORD will give us to taste of His favor. It is grace which makes us humble, and grace which finds in this humility an opportunity for pouring in more grace. Let us go down that we may rise. Let us be poor in spirit that God may make us rich. Let us be humble that we may not need to be humbled but may be exalted by the grace of God.

GODWARD HUMILITY
by John Piper

God loves it when man boasts in God, and God hates it when man boasts in man.

• "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord" (2 Corinthians 10:17). "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14).

• "The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up"
  (Isaiah 2:11-12).

There are two reasons (at least) why God hates for man to boast in man.

1) Boasting in man deflects man’s attention from the Fountain of his joy and so ruins his life. It tricks man into replacing Magnificence with a mirror. Man was not made to admire man. He was made to admire God. The joy of admiration is prostituted and ruined when man tries to find galaxy-size Glory in the glow of his own reflection. God does not like the damage done by boasting in man.

2) The other reason God hates for man to boast in man is this: It conveys the conviction that man is more admirable than God. Now that is, of course, untrue. But we would miss the point if we said: "God hates lying and therefore God hates boasting in man because it conveys a lie." No. That’s not quite right. What God hates is the dishonoring of God. Lying happens to be one way that he is dishonored as the God of truth. So the real problem with man’s boasting in man is that it belittles God.

Boasting in God, on the other hand, does the double opposite: it honors God and gives man the joy for which he was made: admiring the infinitely admirable.

Mercifully, therefore, God has doubly excluded boasting by the way he saves sinners.

First, boasting is excluded by faith. Romans 3:27, "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith." Why does faith exclude boasting? The reason is not merely because faith is a gift of God, which it is. But so are all the fruits of the Spirit. Yet they do not all exclude boasting in the same way. Faith is unique among all the acts of the soul. It is the weakest and most helpless and most empty-handed act of the soul. It is all dependence on Another. In a sense, it is an acted non-act.

Let me explain. I mean it is an inclination of the soul to seek help with no expectation that any inclination of the soul is good enough to obtain help, not even the inclination of faith. It is unique among all the acts of the soul. Since it is empty-handed, it is not like a virtue. It looks to the virtue of another. It looks to the strength of another. It looks to the wisdom of another. It is entirely other-directed and other-dependent. Therefore, it can’t boast in itself, for it can’t even look at itself. It is the kind of thing that in a sense has no "self." As soon as the unique act of the soul exists it is attached to another from whom it gets all its reality.

Second, boasting is excluded by election. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God."

God’s election is designed to remove boasting. The point is that God does not choose people with a view to any feature in us that would allow us to boast. In fact, Romans 9:11 makes clear that God’s election is designed to make God’s saving purpose rest finally on God alone, not any act of the human soul. "Though [Jacob and Esau] were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad – in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because him who calls [God chose Jacob not Esau]". The contrast with works here is not faith, but "him who calls." The choice of God rests finally on God alone. He decides who will believe and undeservingly be saved.

Therefore, let us look away from ourselves and all human help. Let all boasting in man and man’s accomplishments cease. And let us boast in the Lord.

Click here to read CONFESSED HUMILITY

Click here to read PROUD HUMILITY

Click here to read LEARNED HUMILITY

Click here to read DISCIPLINED HUMILITY

Click here to read WEAKENED HUMILITY

Click here to read UNAWARE HUMILITY

Click here to read NOBLE HUMILITY

Click here to read LOVING HUMILITY