Clothe yourselves with humility. 1 Peter 5:5 (NIV)
If we are going to make some progress in the pursuit of humility, we need to know what we are aiming at.
1. Humility is a release from preoccupation with self.
Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves…” (Luke 9:23). Jesus did not say, “Deny your gifts and abilities,” or “Pretend that nothing you do is good.” He said, “Deny yourself.” Some of us think too highly of ourselves. Some of us think too poorly of ourselves. All of us think too much about ourselves.
C. S. Lewis said that God wants to bring a person “to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, know it to be the best and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another…God would rather the man thought himself a great architect or a great poet and then forgot about it, than that he should spend much time and pains trying to think himself a bad one.” Humility is about getting free from preoccupation with ourselves.
2. Humility is a reflection of the beauty of Jesus.
Jesus was without sin and there was nothing that he could not do. Yet the beauty and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is seen in his humility. Andrew Murray says, “Humility is being clothed with the very beauty and blessedness of heaven and of Jesus.” The glory of Jesus is seen in his taking the form of a servant, and our highest glory is found in serving others.
Do you really believe this? Why or why not?
