Piper on Humility

John Piper posted a clear and succinct post on 6 Aspects of Humility yesterday at the Desiring God blog.

I found Number 5 to be very challenging: Humility knows it is fallible, and so considers criticism and learns from it; but also knows that God has made provision for human conviction and that he calls us to persuade others.

And then, today, he follows up with this:

At the very moment when in the pulpit we are extolling the glories of Christ, we can in reality be seeking our own glory, and when we are exhorting the congregation to praise God, and are even ostensibly leading them in praise, we can be secretly hoping that they will spare a bit of praise for us. (found, here, quoting John Stott).

Ouch.

While we are talking about humility...

,,,I recognize that it has been some time since I last posted a selection from The Valley of Vision.

Reliance

My Father,
When thou art angry towards me for my wrongs
I try to pacify thee by abstaining from future sin;
But teach me
that I cannot satisfy thy law,
That this effort is resting in my righteousness,
that only Christ’s righteousness ready made,
already finished, is fit for that purpose;
that thy chastening me for my sin is not
that I should try to reform, but only
that I may be more humbled, afflicted and
separated from sin, by being reconciled,
and made righteous in Christ by faith;
that a sense of my sufficiency and ability in him
is one means of my being immovable;
that I can never be so by resting on my own faith,
but by trusting in thee as my only support,
by faith;
that if I cast away my faith I cast away thee,
for by faith I apprehend thee,
and as thou art very precious,
so is my faith very precious to me;
that I fall short of the purity thou requirest,
because in thinking I am holy I do not
seek holiness,
or, believing I am impotent, I do no more.
Humble me for not being as holy as I should be,
or as holy as I might be through Christ,
for thou art all, and to possess thee is to possess all.
But to make the creature something
is to make it stand between thee and me,
so that I do not walk humbly and holily.
Lord, forgive me for this.

Godly Man's Picture - True Humility

A man may be humbled and not humble. A sinner may be humbled by affliction. His condition is low but not his disposition. A godly man is not only humbled but humble. His heart is as low as his condition. (pg. 77)

This bears heeding. Many a time our circumstances have resulted in our being humbled, but if we regain pride once our condition improves then we know that we are not humble, but were only humbled for a time by our situation. It may be, even during the time of humiliation, that our pride was as great as at any time.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:10 ESV)

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, (1 Peter 5:6)

Are we truly humble, or only humbled?