01/09/2026
How do you recognize a person who has given themselves completely over to God’s will? What one trait do you see in such saints that makes them stand out? If you mull this over in your mind, you will come to one conclusion, and one conclusion only... humility. To become a servant you must first humble yourself, to obey God without reservation you must humble yourself, and to become a child of Our Heavenly Father, you must humble yourself before Him. Do you humbly place God before yourself? Are you capable of embodying the absolute humility of Christ?
“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Philippians 2:8 ESV
As I was researching the subject of humility I came across a wonderful quote by Pastor Andrew Murray. He had come to the realization that without humbling ourselves and giving our own desires and needs over to God, that we could go no further in faith than simply to believe.
“Humility is the blossom of which death to self is the perfect fruit. Jesus humbled himself unto death and opened the path in which we too must walk. Humility must lead us to die to self” - Andrew Murray
Pride is the antithesis of humility, and as humans we have received a full share of this characteristic. It is so pervasive in us that in order to defeat it we must bring ourselves to the point of death. We must be ready to lay down our lives, and place our love for God, our friends, and our neighbors before our own selves. Jesus demonstrated this on the cross, and He spoke of it long before He reached Calvary...
“"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:12-13 ESV
Humility allows us to love. The essence and absolute nature of love is a humble heart. How can we love one another and still place ourselves before those we claim to love? If you say you love someone, but are only interested in how you feel, or what you receive from the relationship then that is not love. Loving, and being in love is the total abandonment of one’s self to another... it is stripping away our pride and exposing ourselves and all of our vulnerabilities to that person, or to God. Love is humbling ourselves to the point at which our self is on the verge of death.
One of the greatest love stories that man has ever written is Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare’s play he reveals the nature and intensity of human love, he uses two young lovers to unmask the burning heart of love that leads us not only to the point of death, but into death itself. I am not proposing that we should commit suicide when our heart is broken, but we can use this story as an example of love, and as a means of demonstrating the abandonment of self to another.
God gave His only begotten Son to die for us. This was an unparalleled act of love on the part of both God, and His Son. Jesus laid His life down in obedience to His Father, and for this to have happened He had to humble himself in obedience to His Father’s will. Likewise, God had to humble Himself to His own nature in order to love us enough to pay such a price for our forgiveness. Love... at its very heart is the humility of God, and is the greatest gift given man. Love is like an egg that when broken reveals the yolk of humility inside. Without the yolk, the egg is sterile, and without the entirety of the egg surrounding it, then what real good does the yolk alone serve.
“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,”
Ephesians 4:1-2 ESV
Are we humble? Is our humility so pronounced in us that it is revealed in the form of our absolute love of God? When those around us see our humility do they say... “This is a child of God.”?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for giving us the humility that not only makes love possible, but that defeats our prideful nature. Thank you Lord for sending your Son Jesus Christ to not only demonstrate humility to us, but to reveal the humble nature of yourself as well. Holy Father, we fall down prostrate before you as we present ourselves humbly at your feet. How else can our love for you be complete than to do your will without question, and without regard to our own selves? Let the humble yolk of our love for you bring life into our relationship Father. Teach us Merciful Father; teach us that by our nature of humility we are able to present ourselves in perfect love and accord to you. Hear our praise as it is offered up, feel our sorrow and heartbreak in the face of our sin, smell the sweet aroma of our prayers as they carry our penitence before you. You are most certainly our God, you are our Lord, and before you we humble ourselves completely in undying love. Holy, Holy, Holy art thou who is the love that abides in us. Holy are you… the yolk of humility that lies at the center of our loving relationship and gives it life. Merciful, forgiving, and full of grace are you Abba, for you have humbly sent your Son Jesus that we might have life and have it abundantly… You are love, and yours is the love that bleeds the blood of grace through Christ which washes us clean of our sin and defeats death. How in the face of this, your amazing love and humility, can we not love and honor you with all our hearts?
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
John 10:10-11 ESV
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:16-17 ESV
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13 ESV
And in the face of such humble love, all creation cries out as one…
“Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” and “AMEN!”
Rich Forbes