Humility and Death to Self 2 – Andrew Murray

Humility is the blossom of which death to self is the perfect fruit. Jesus humbled himself unto death and opened the path in which we too must walk. Humility must lead us to die to self: so we prove how wholly we have given ourselves up to it and to God; so alone we are freed from our fallen nature and find the path that leads to life in God, to that full birth of the new nature, of which humility is the breath and the joy.

Humility means giving up self, taking the place of perfect nothingness before God. Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death. In death He gave the highest and perfect proof of having given up His will to the will of God.

If you would enter into full fellowship with Christ in His death, and know the full deliverance from self, humble yourself. This is your duty. Place yourself before God in your helplessness; consent to the fact that you are powerless to slay yourself; give yourself in patient and trustful surrender to God. Accept every humiliation; look upon every person who tries or troubles you as a means of grace to humble you. God will see such acceptance as proof that your whole heart desires it. It is the path of humility that leads to the full and perfect experience of our death with Christ.

True humility will manifest itself in daily life. The one who has it will take the form of a servant. Claim in faith the death and the life of Jesus as your own. Enter into rest from self and its work the rest of God. Every morning remind yourself afresh of your emptiness so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in you. The souls that enter into His humiliation will find in Him the power to see and count self as dead and, as those who have learned and received of Him, to walk with all lowliness and meekness, forbearing one another in love.

(Excerpted from The Andrew Murray Daily Reader in Today’s Language, pg. 17)

Andrew Murray