Humility destroys all of his schemes. Macarius of Optina. Even if heaven were to fall and cleave to the earth, the humble man would not be dismayed. Not every quiet man is humble, but every humble man is quiet. There is no humble man who is not self-constrained; but you will find many who are self-constrained without being humble. Isaac the Syrian. Image Attribution: Don Christner on Flickr.
This article is part of our Christian Terms catalog exploring words and phrases of Christian theology and history. Here are some of our most popular articles covering Christian terms to help your journey of knowledge and faith:. Christian Meaning of Humility. Who are Gentiles? Biblical Meaning What is Fornication? Share this. What Is the Meaning of Humility? Why Should We Be Humble? The driving desire for a shot of vodka or heroin or whatever drug one is addicted to gradually fades—even if it never completely goes away—it fades and gets easier and easier to ignore the longer one has stayed away from the drug and the triggers that one associates with it.
As we learn to accept crucifixion, to accept the pain that saying no to ourselves inflicts on us, then we begin to overcome it. And as our reason starts to rule our body, a deeper level of crucifixion can begin. This second part of our crucifixion, St. Isaac says, is the ascent into divine vision. This second part of our crucifixion with Christ does not involve our will—our will was expressed in the first part.
In this part the Holy Spirit works. Isaac says. And once this begins to happen, then the Holy Spirit can begin to work at humbling our mind and bringing us to a knowledge of ourselves which makes us able to begin to know God. It is not as though you complete the first part and then move on to the second. All levels of this process are going on at the same time. Every day the struggle is new. Every day the struggle requires a new beginning. Every day I must die in some small or large way. This is the beginning.
The rest is up to God. Isaac tells us that this continual beginning again, this daily dying to ourselves, this inner or hidden crucifixion is how we submit to God; and in submitting to God, we acquire humility.
Humility then is the manger in which peace can be born in our hearts, and peace calms the passions. When we are at peace, the pain, the fear, the darkness, the confusing, desperate, and unfair circumstances of our life, all of this, is so much easier to bear. The pain of the nails, that is, the bodily urges that cry out to us as though we will die if we do not cave in immediately, the pain of not knowing, of not being in control, the sufferings that we experience not only from our flesh but from the circumstances and accidents of our life—all of this pain is somehow so much easier to bear when we have peace, when Christ as the infant seems to abide in the humble manger of our hearts.
See Matthew , 2 Corinthians He gives us the example of humility that we should all aspire to have. Moses was described in the Bible as "very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth" Numbers He led the Israelites out of their slavery in Egypt and across the Red Sea to the promised land.
Moses was so humble that he put the Israelites above himself, even when they sinned against God. When God wanted to punish the Israelites, Moses begged God to forgive them and to punish himself instead:. Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written. Moses put others above himself; he was surely a man of humility. He was so humble that he he even asked God to blot him out of God's book to save Israel. There are many other examples of humility in the Bible.
Humility allows us to fully submit to God. God wants us to acknowledge that apart from Him we can do nothing. He is the one who knows us, the one who created us. He has a plan for each one of us. When we begin to put all of our faith in God, we humble ourselves to the point of being completely dependent on Him. When we reach this point, there is nothing God won't do for us. His love is deeper than we can imagine. All vicars probably have a little bit of this in them. This is the person who uses church roles, to compensate for their lack of confidence.
Now sometimes in our churches its unavoidable that one person does several jobs. That should be a challenge to us all to muck in and help out. Which is everyone. So what can we do to fix it? Well if pride is comparing yourself to others, then humility is comparing yourself to Jesus. Think of it like a chart,w ith Jesus at the top — in all his brilliant wonderfulness and perfect holiness. Down at the bottom in his awfulness, is Satan.
Where would you put yourself on the chart? And when we do that, we immediately realise how ridiculous we are. So are you ready to humble yourself? In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:. Rather, he made himself nothing, took the very nature of a servant, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!
Jesus was equal with God the Father, but he chose to humble himself, to put off the glory of Godhood and become a man. But not just any man: he chose to come as a servant.
And to allow himself to die a humiliating death on the cross.
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