Meekness, Not Weakness

He must increase, but I must decrease.

John 3:30

The famous nineteenth-century London preacher C. H. Spurgeon wrote a book with an unusual title: Humility and How to Get It. That catchy title would be more suited to modern marketing methods than to the staid style of Victorian England. Surely no humble person would declare himself a teacher of humility!

We have a false idea of humility today. It is not self-abasement or groveling; it is not timid and overly sensitive. Take Moses, for example. No one could accuse him of being timid or weak. Yet the Bible says he was “very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). Rather than weakness, humility is meekness: a right understanding of one’s place in the grand design of God’s economy. Jesus was humble when He came to earth and submitted Himself to earthly limitations and the Father’s will (Philippians 2:3-8). We are humble when we recognize Jesus as Lord and bow our knee to Him. There is strength in being humble and not grasping for advantage; there is desire but not desperation for advancement.

Ask God today for a fresh perspective of Christ and what He has done for you. And then enjoy a humble day.

The surest mark of true conversion is humility.

J. C. RYLE