True Humility

The word of God is very clear on a simple truth, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”   In Proverbs 18:12 we are reminded this way, “before honor there must be humility."  There are literally dozens of Scripture that point us to embrace humility, but what is it?  Some falsely believe that humility is putting oneself down or not having a high regard for oneself.  Another wrong view of humility is an absence of desire for great things, accomplishment, or success.  Still others believe that if great things come your way, humility means to distance yourself from them.

But true humility has nothing to do with such ideas.  True humility is understanding what our true condition before God is.  True humility understands that everything I am and everything I have been created for is a gift from God and dependent on Him.  True humility understands that what is most important is what God thinks about me,

Andrew Murray, a great saint and prayer warrior who ran orphanages in 19th century England wrote a classic book called Humility.  Read his definition, "humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision who God is.”   A few paragraphs later he put it this way, “Humility is the displacement of self by the enthronement and exaltation of God.”

In  Mark 7:24-30, we find a Gentile woman who had a huge problem on her hand.  Her daughter was demon possessed, which probably meant that her daughter was not only exhibiting behavior that was paramount to insanity, but also meant that she ran out of options on how to bring her little girl to a place of health and peace.   In short, she found herself in circumstances beyond her control.

She obviously heard about Jesus, His ability to heal and His power to cast out demons, and so she went to Him.  But there was a problem.  She was a Gentile.    Jesus points this out in the text in vs. 27 by reminding her that it wouldn’t be right for Him to help her.  But it was her humility that moved Jesus to a place of mercy and compassion.

She demonstrates this humility in her posture in vs. 25-26, when she begs and falls down.  She shows us her humility by acknowledging her true position before God as a Gentile.  She accept that before the Jew she was just a mere dog.  She shows her humility in vs. 28 by accepting her position before God and begs Jesus for the crumbs under the table.

This Syrophoenician woman teaches us something about true humility.  First, we see how she recognizes her bankrupt condition before God and acknowledges that only through God’s power, there is hope.  True humility sees our bankrupt condition as sinners before God and recognizes that only through Jesus we can find forgiveness and discover that truly that He is the way, the truth and the life.

Another truth we see in Mark 7 is that when we humble ourselves, God gives grace.  When we go to the Him in humility, acknowledging our true condition before Him as sinners, He always responds with mercy and compassion.   Jesus reminds us this way in John 6:37, “to all those the Father gives me…  I will never turn away.”   That is a great promise for all of mankind, but the condition we must approach God with is humility.  When we do that God gives grace and salvation and healing.