Pursuing Greater Humility

How do we cultivate humility and mortify pride?

• We need to spend time thinking about God’s greatness and holiness in comparison to our natural, moral, and moral insignificance.
• We need to think about how much God loves the humble and hates the proud.
• We need to meditate on the way that Christ humbled Himself when He came to earth.
• We need to think seriously on the examples of humility left by the most useful believers who have walked this earth.
• We must consider the example of humility demonstrated by the holy angels.
• We need to carefully reflect on the humility of believers who are now in heaven.
• We need to think about the great imperfections and weakness of our faith, our character, our behavior, our motives, our duties, and our service to God.
• We need to think about the fact that we deserve to experience God’s judgment and wrath because of our sin.
• We need to spend time thinking about the day of judgment.
• We ought to reflect on the pride of Satan and the demons.
• We need to remember that everything that we have or have accomplished comes from God’s hand.
• We must spend time thinking about the sad consequences of pride in other people’s lives.
• We ought to spend time with humble people and avoid as much as possible the company of arrogant people.
• We must spend time in prayer every day, confessing our pride to God and earnestly pleading for greater humility.

Adapted from Wayne Mack's Humility: The Forgotten Virtue.

God's Sovereignty is Sanctifying

God is sovereign,
kind,
and wise.
He has the whole world in His hands
at this very moment.
I can rest.
I can wait.
I can hope.
I can love.
I can obey.
Because nothing is spinning out of control.
Because nothing is outside His grip.

Greedy Miser

John Piper got a new book in the mail today. Here is what he tweeted about it:

"I feel like a greedy miser over a chest of gold."

The book? John Sailhamer's The Meaning of the Pentateuch.

Don't Waste Your Sickness

My family and I have had a case of the stomach bug making its way to each of us over the past few days. My turn came just in time to keep me from preaching God's Word on Sunday.

I don't like being sick and I'm not a very good patient. So, over these past few days I've been thinking about making the most of the sicknesses God brings. Everyone gets sick sooner or later. Here are some big ideas for not wasting this "down" time.

1. Receive sickness as a gift of God meant to humble you. God is kind to remind you of your frailty. Sickness is used of God to make us depend on Him alone. The world still goes on without you. Nothing falls apart. You are not as important as you thought.

2. Pray for God to heal you. Use sickness as a means of believing in the power of God to heal the human body. Yes, it is possible to both receive sickness as a gift of God and to plead with God to remove it.

3. If you can't read, listen. When I'm sick, the hardest thing in the world is to concentrate enough to read. So, listen to God's Word being read. At esv.org you can listen to any passage being read from the ESV.

4. Take the opportunity to pray. Sickness provides an opportunity to spend extended times in prayer. Pray about everything while you are resting.

5. Express gratitude for those who serve you. Allow people to serve you and be sure to express your gratefulness for their help. For those who are married, take the opportunity to remember how blessed you are to have a spouse who is committed to you in "sickness and in health." That your spouse doesn't walk out when you are throwing up is a sweet mercy from God.

6. Rest. This post is not meant to heap guilt on you for sleeping all day. When you are sick, rest, knowing that your Savior is sufficient. He has your life in His hand.

Don't waste your sickness.

Manifesting Humility Toward God

What does humility before God look like?

Wayne Mack gives us 10 ways humility is manifested:

1. by the free and sincere confession of one's insignificance.

2. by a complete lack of trust in one's own heart and complete dependence on God for all things.

3. by totally renouncing any glory coming from our own good and by giving all glory to God for all things.

4. by respecting, receiving, and responding to the Word of God.

5. by completely submitting to God's will even if His will is difficult.

6. by submitting oneself to the providences of God without complaint.

7. by delighting in the worship and praise of God.

8. by continually seeking God in prayer.

9. by considering it a privilege to serve Christ in any capacity (a privilege that we are not worthy of or deserving).

10. by being willing to acknowledge God's infinite wisdom and knowledge.

Wayne Mack, Humility: The Forgotten Virtue, chapter 2.

Dug Down Deep

Josh Harris' new book will be available soon: Dug Down Deep: Unearthing What I Believe and Why it Matters.

One of the Best New Books I've Read: Counsel from the Cross

Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ is one of the best new books I've read. This is a good and helpful book that should find a place on your reading list very soon. Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis Johnson team up to expose the power of the Cross in helping ourselves and others grow in grace.

They write, "When we lose the centrality of the cross, Christianity morphs into a religion of self-improvement and becomes about us, about our accomplishments, and about getting our act together."

In this book you will find solid Biblical exposition, helpful illustrations, gripping case studies, nitty gritty application, and rich gospel content. If the gospel of Jesus Christ has become stale and boring, you need this book. The authors remind us again and again how Christ's life, death, resurrection, and ascension relate to everything in our lives.

Get and read this book. You won't be disappointed.

Live to See Lust Dead at Your Feet

John Owen's counsel on how to mortify sin:

"Set faith at work on Christ for the killing of your sin. His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and you will die a conqueror; yea, you will, through the good providence of God, live to see your lust dead at your feet."

Overcoming Sin and Temptation, p. 131.

The errand boy of our desires

"In our idolatry we make gifts out to be supreme gods, and make the Giver into the errand boy of our desires."

-Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes, p. 135.