True Lowliness of Mind
Jonathan Edwards description of one who is truly of a humble disposition is that he is led by the vigor of a lowly spirit within, and that he does not put himself forward to be the one to teach, guide or manage others, he is far more apt to have the desire to be taught. "Be ye swift to hear, and slow to speak." And when they do speak, he says, it is not with a bold masterly air, but humility disposes them to speak, rather, trembling.
The best description I've read regarding true lowliness of mind was that the falsly humble will look upward - to the place that they feel their proper station is, and in view of the short distance that they have descended, they call this "humility" and admire it, and also, they think that God does too.
The truly humble, on the other hand, will look down from where he is, no matter how low he is brought, and be convinced that it is a shameful thing that one so sinful as he is brought no lower before God. In his mind, he has not reached the depths of his proper station, and he calls that distance pride, and loathes it. Believing that any humility he may have is worthy to be called little, and therefore not worth mentioning in comparision to the remaining corruption.
In lowiness of mind, consider others better than yourselves.......it should not be a hard thing to do, since we see our own insides. We only need to get a better, a more true picture of the heights to which our love and obedience ought to ascend.
The more we comprehend of what we ought to be doing, the more we will see how far we fall short......which produces the broken and contrite heart that the Lord God loves.
I only write what convicts my little heart....... my brother tells me to preach to myself...so this is sort of how I'm working that out.
May the Lord take us lower...and strip us of pride for His name's sake.
In Christ by sheer mercy,
oatmeal
1 Comments:
Sister, this brought tears to my eyes as I read this...ugh, God help me.
Thank you for preaching to yourself "out loud" - I needed to hear all that; indeed I need to hear that within every minute of the day, as the backdrop to every thought...
Hmm.
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