The Humility of Christ

Dave is up in Pennsylvania this weekend. He went up to do a Sunday School class at our sending church, as well as spend some wonderful time with His parents. Yesterday, I got to give a devotional at a ladies meeting at our church. Here are some of the thoughts I shared and things that I have been thinking about for a while in my own life:

Have you ever really considered the humility of Christ? I mean really considered it? The Creator of the whole universe - worthy of all glory, honor, and praise - humbled Himself and became part of His creation. He willingly laid aside His glory and came to earth as a man and clothed Himself with death. He came to earth from heaven to save sinners who didn't even want Him. I guess in the past few months, the Lord has been impressing upon me the need for humility. I guess I have been marveling at the humility of Christ. 

This is a quote from Andrew Murray's book Humility:

Our one need is to study and know and trust the life that has been revealed in Christ as the life that is now ours, and waits for our consent to gain possession and mastery of our whole being.

In this view it is of inconceivable importance that we should have right thoughts of what Christ is, of what really constituted Him the Christ, and specially of what may be counted His chief characteristic, the root and essence of all His character as our Redeemer. There can be but one answer: it is His humility. What is the incarnation but His heavenly humility, His emptying Himself and becoming man? What is His life on earth but humility; His taking the form of a servant? And what is His atonement but humility? "He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death." [Phil. 2:8] And what is His ascension and His glory but humility exalted to the throne and crowned with glory? "He Humbled Himself, therefore God highly exalted Him." [Phil. 2:9] In heaven, where He was with the Father, in His birth, in His life, in His death, in His sitting on the throne, it is all, it is nothing but humility. Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature; the Eternal Love humbling itself, clothing itself in the garb of meekness and gentleness, to win and serve and save us. As the love and condescension of God makes Him the benefactor and helper and servant of all, so Jesus of necessity was the Incarnate Humility. And so He is still int he midst of the throne, the meek and lowly Lamb of God.
If this be the root of of the tree, its nature maust be seen in every branch and leaf and fruit. If humility be the first, the all-including grace of the the life of Jesus - if humility be the secret of His atonement - then the health and strength of our spiritual life will entirely depend upon our putting this grace first too and making humility the chief thing we admire in Him, the chief thing we ask of Him, the one thing for which we sacrifice all else. (p. 14, The Wisdom of Andrew Murray - from his book Humility.)

The thought of humility used to not exactly thrill me. Why in the world would I want to pray for humility? The Lord might just decide to answer that prayer and then I would just go through some horrible trial and then I would receive humility. I never really wanted humility, to be perfectly honest; I figured I wasn't really all that bad.

I guess you could say that the Lord has taken me on a journey - a journey from really having no desire for humility at all to a desire to embrace it. Before we moved from Kentucky and started this journey with New Tribes (we were going to be moving to Pennsylvania to raise our support), I assumed that it would be an easy move. We were moving 5 minutes from Dave's parents. We knew the area. We knew where we were going to be living (in Dave's grandparents' house). We knew which church we would be attending. Easy. No problem. Boy was I wrong! When we moved, it was like everything I had known and loved was all the sudden uprooted. I cried for a solid month. I told Dave it was as if I had left both my arms in Kentucky and I didn't know what to do with myself.

Then 6 months later we moved to Florida to join the New Tribes staff. My friend from Kentucky asked me if the move to Florida was easier, I told her, "No, but I don't think I am kicking against the Lord anymore." After we moved here, life was different. We were living in an apartment, far away from friends and family, and it was all new and different. I would have these conversations with the Lord, "Lord, what about our house?" ...He would respond (not audibly, but in my heart) "Lay it down." 

"Lord, what about our backyard?" ..."Lay it down."

"Lord, what about Dave's paycheck? His insurance?"..."Lay it down."

Silly things like, "Lord, what about our pediatrician? Our wonderful library?"... "Lay it down."

In the journey of His gently and lovingly prying open my very tightly clenched fingers around these things that I held so closely, He led me to Himself. And you know what? I found that He IS sufficient. 

"Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being the nature of God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing..." (Philippians 2:5)

Even though He had all the rights as Creator of the Universe, even though He would have had the right to demand praise and honor and glory (and be totally just in demanding it), He is humble. He didn't grasp His equality with God. He laid it down - willingly. We serve a humble God. What an amazing thought. It was almost as if He folded all His beautiful kingly garments and laid them aside and clothed Himself with humanity, humility and death and for the sake of love.

Don't you see? In studying the humility of Christ, we see the lack thereof in ourselves. I am the ultimate prideful person - that's why it rears its ugly head when I feel I am not getting what I deserve. You know what though? Actually what I deserve is hell and death. Christ deserved glory and honor and all the praise due Him and He willingly laid it aside to seek and save the lost.

Maybe the Lord is teaching me to lay down all those things that I think I deserve so that He may receive the glory. Maybe He wants me to learn to embrace humility so that all of His glory can shine through and I realize it is all of Him, and none of me. "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, ACCORDING TO HIS POWER THAT IS AT WORK WITH US, to Him the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21 (emphasis mine.)