What Would It Be Like to Be Humble?

What would it be like to be humble?  I mean, how would a humble person think and feel?

Over the last several weeks we have been discussing the sinner's inner tendency to sin.  Last week we talked about conquering sin in our lives, realizing two things: (1) We will  never have complete victory in this lifetime, and (2) We can only tame the sin in our lives by using the power of Christ.  We cannot achieve this by our own efforts.  The Holy Spirit, living within us, convicts us of our sin and gives us the strength to combat our fleshly desires and behavior. 

God's power is too overwhelming for Him to dole it out to just anyone.  They must be a person who can be trusted with such power, and I suggested that the prerequisite for receiving His power is humility.  Now here is the awkward thing.  Not only do you need that precious power from God, you need Him to also supply you with humility.  Some of us are not naturally endowed with a humble nature.  God, in His master plan of sanctification for us, must bring us to that state. 

Being converted from non-humble to humble is not always an easy process.  God must use several means to get us there.  Like a surgeon, God has many instruments at His disposal. If we are clearly out of His will with prideful sin, God may have to chastise us.  He may allow Satan to do His work for Him by means of spiritual warfare.  Job was a righteous man, "blameless and upright," (Job 1:8), yet he was further humbled by Satan's attacks on him (Job 42:1-6).  Even if we are in God's will, not sinning, He may further prune us of any part of us that carries pride within. So the ususal methods are chastisement, spiritual warfare, and pruning, or some combination of these.

As Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones put it, God chastises through circumstances, frequently through financial or material losses, and occasionally through health issues.  God's primary concern is not our happiness but our holiness.  And it is difficult to be humble if you are always successful.  You have to be humbled to have humility.  It is certainly not in our nature to actively seek out chastisement and being humbled.

With regards to pruning, we must recognize what God is doing in our lives so that we may cooperate with his plan.  When something painful wounds us, we must ask ourselves if God is trying to prune us of our pride.  And then we must not resist.  As C. S. Lewis put it, "But suppose you are up against a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good.  The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting.  If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would have been useless."

If you are a Christian, you will hate the sin in your life. You will long to be sin-free.  You will not obtain that in this lifetime; it is a chronic disease.  But if you seek humility with the same desire that God desires to see that in you, He will grant that.  It will require spiritual surgery, a pridectomy, to instill you with a humble spirit.  And only after you have been prepared in this way will God be able to entrust to you His power to conquer sin.  For some of us, it requires a daily trip to His operating suite.

And how does it feel to be humble? How does a humble person think and feel?  Since I am not there yet, I can only offer observations from the humble people that have graced my life.  I think that if there were any one single aspect that characterizes a humble person it is that they do not think of themselves.  Don't get me wrong.  I don't mean that they think poorly of themselves.  They do not debase themselves.  They do not have a false humility.  And they are not completely self-unaware.  They are perfectly able to look at themselves when needed and examine their lives.  But they do not dwell on themselves.  They are not constantly worried about themselves, what will happen to them, what other people will think of them.  They are not worried about pleasing themselves or pleasing others but pleasing God.  They do not focus on themseves because they are focused on God. 

If some of my earlier comments about God's methods are confusing, my new book, "Surviving the Suffering", should be out this fall.  It is currently in the final stages of layout, then on to marketing before it is released.  The entire book is built around the concept of diagnosing the causes of our sufferings, so that we may make the right decisions in dealing with each of those causes, including chastisement, spiritual warfare, and pruning as well as other causes of our sufferings.  I am hoping and praying that it will help those of you who are suffering now or will be, and that pretty much includes everyone.

I am also praying for humility.  That is a dangerous thing to do.  It can be a short trip for some or a lifetime journey for others.  I'll send you a postcard when I get there.