Humility And Happiness

Oftentimes, when faced with trials, we seek God to alleviate them, yet they are the test through which in weakness and humiliation, the grace and strength of God are best manifested or revealed. So, just like Paul, instead of simply enduring the trials, let us gladly glory in times of distress. Humiliation is the place of blessing, power, and joy. The deeper humility is in oneself, the greater the holiness that they possess.

"I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12: 9, 10.

Lest Paul should exalt himself, by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was sent to him to keep him humble. Paul's first desire was to have it removed, and he beseeched the Lord thrice that it might depart. The answer came that the trial was a blessing, that, in the weakness and humiliation it brought, the grace and strength of the Lord could be better manifested. Paul at once entered upon a new stage in his relation to the trial. Instead of simply enduring it, he most gladly gloried in it. Instead of asking for deliverance, he took pleasure in it.

He had learned that the place of humiliation is the place of blessing, power, and joy. Every Christian virtually passes through these two stages in his pursuit of humility. In the first, he fears, flees, and seeks deliverance from all that can humble him. He has not yet learnt to seek humility at any cost. He has accepted the command to be humble and seeks to obey it, though only to find how utterly he fails. He prays for humility, at times very earnestly, but in his secret heart, he prays more, if not in word, then in wish, to be kept from the very things that will make him humble.

He is not yet so in love with humility as the beauty of the Lamb of God, and the joy of heaven, that he would sell all to procure it. In his pursuit of it, and his prayer for it, there is still somewhat of a sense of burden and bondage, to humble himself has not yet become the spontaneous expression of a life and nature that is essentially humble. It has not yet become his joy and only pleasure. He cannot yet say, "Most gladly do I glory in weakness, I take pleasure in whatever humbles me." Can we hope to reach the stage in which this will be the case? Undoubtedly.

And what will it be that brings us there? That which brought Paul there, a new revelation of the Lord Jesus. Nothing but the presence of God can reveal and expel the self. A clearer insight was to be given to Paul into the deep truth that the presence of Jesus will banish every desire to seek anything in ourselves, and will make us delight in every humiliation that prepares us for His fuller manifestation. Our humiliations lead us in the experience of the presence and power of Jesus to choose humility as our highest blessing.

Let us try to learn the lessons the story of Paul teaches us. We may have advanced believers, eminent teachers, and men of heavenly experiences, who have not yet fully learnt the lesson of perfect humility and how to gladly glory in weakness. We see this in Paul. The danger of exalting himself was coming very near. He knew not yet perfectly what it was to be nothing, to die, that Christ alone might live in him, and to take pleasure in all that brought him low. It appears as if this were the highest lesson that he had to learn, full conformity to his Lord in that self-emptying, where he glorified in weakness that God might be all.

The highest lesson a believer has to learn is humility, or every Christian who seeks to advance in holiness may remember this well! There may be intense consecration, and fervent zeal and heavenly experience, and yet, if it is not prevented by very special dealings of the Lord, there may be an unconscious self-exaltation with it all.

Let us learn the lesson that the highest holiness is the deepest humility, and let us remember that it comes not of itself, but only as it is made a matter of special dealing on the part of our faithful Lord and His faithful servant. Let us look at our lives in the light of this experience, and see whether we gladly glory in weakness, whether we take pleasure, as Paul did in injuries, in necessities and in times of distress.

Yes, let us ask whether we have learnt to regard a reproof, just or unjust, a reproach from friend or enemy, an injury, or trouble, or difficulty into which others bring us, as above all an opportunity of proving Jesus is all to us, how our own pleasure or honour are nothing, and how humiliation is in very truth what we take pleasure in. It is indeed blessed, the deep happiness of heaven, to be so free from self that whatever is said of us or done to us is lost and swallowed up, in the thought that Jesus is all.

Let us trust Him who took charge of Paul to take charge of us too. Paul needed special discipline, and with it special instruction, to learn what was more precious than even the unutterable things he had heard in heaven, what it is to glory in weakness and lowliness. We need it too, O so much.

He who cared for him will care for us too. He watches over us with a jealous, and loving care, lest we exalt ourselves. When we are doing so, He seeks to discover to us the evil and deliver us from it.

In trial, weakness and trouble, He seeks to bring us low until we learn that His grace is all, as to take pleasure in the very thing that brings us and keeps us low. His strength made perfect in our weakness, His presence filling and satisfying our emptiness, becomes the secret of humility that never needs to fail. It can, as Paul, in full sight of what God works in us, and through us, ever say, "I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing." 2 Corinthians 12:11.

His humiliations had led him to true humility, with its wonderful gladness and glorying in all that humbles.

"I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."2 Corinthians 12: 9-10. The humble man has learnt the secret of abiding gladness. The weaker he feels, the lower he sinks. The greater his humiliations appear, the more the power and the presence of Christ are his portion, until, as he says, "I am nothing," the word of his Lord brings ever deeper joy. 2 Corinthians 12:9: "My grace is sufficient for you." I feel as if I must once again gather up all in the two lessons; the danger of pride is greater and nearer than we think, and the grace for humility too. The danger of pride is greater and nearer than we think, especially at the time of our highest experiences.

The preacher of spiritual truth with an admiring congregation hanging on his lips, the gifted speaker on a Holiness platform expounding the secrets of the heavenly life, the Christian giving testimony to a blessed experience, the evangelist moving on as in triumph, and made a blessing to rejoicing multitudes, no man knows the hidden, the unconscious danger to which these are exposed. Paul was in danger without knowing it, what Jesus did for him is written for our admonition that we may know our danger and know our only safety.

If ever it has been said of a teacher or professor of holiness, he is so full of self or, he does not practice what he preaches, or, his blessing has not made him humbler, gentler, let it be said no more. Jesus, in whom we trust, can make us humble. Yes, the grace for humility is greater and nearer, too, than we think. The humility of Jesus is our salvation. Jesus Himself is our humility.

Our humility is His care and His work. His grace is sufficient for us, to meet the temptation of pride too. His strength will be perfected in our weakness. Let us choose to be weak, to be low, and to be nothing.

Let humility be to us joy and gladness. Let us gladly glory and take pleasure in weakness, in all that can humble us and keep us low so that the power of Christ will rest upon us. Christ humbled Himself, therefore God exalted Him. Christ will humble us, and keep us humble. Let us heartily consent, trustfully and joyfully accept all that humbles and the power of Christ will rest upon us.

We shall find that the deepest humility is the secret of the truest happiness, of a joy that nothing can destroy.