Lowliness
"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up." (James 4:10)
Low at Thy feet, Lord Jesus, This is the place for me,
Here I have learned deep lessons -- Truth that has set me free.
Free from myself, Lord Jesus, Free from the ways of men;
Chains of thought that have bound me, Never shall bind again.
None but Thyself, Lord Jesus, Conquered this wayward will;
But for Thy love constraining, I had been wayward still.
(pp. 177-180, Footprints for Pilgrims)
God demands a complete submission to His revealed will. He demands that the world should submit to Jesus: all those who will not shall be forced to do so when judgment comes, and then to their own confusion and endless sorrow. God presents His Son in humilation in order to save the world, but without submission to Jesus all is useless, because this is what God requires and values ... God will have a surrender of the heart to Jesus as Saviour and Lord.
(Matthew 11:20-30) In the midst of a world of evil Jesus remained the sole revealer of the Father, the source of all good... He calls all those who are weary and heavy laden ... If it was the sense of sin which burdened them, so much the better. Every way the world no longer satisfied their hearts -- they were miserable, and therefore the objects of the heart of Jesus ... The love of the Father ... which in the Person of the Son sought out the wretched, would bestow rest ... on every one that came to Jesus. It was the perfect revelation of the Father's name to the heart that needed it; and that by the Son; peace, peace with God. They had but to come to Christ: He undertook all and gave rest. But there is a second element in rest. There is more than peace through the knowledge of the Father in Jesus. And more than that is needed; for even when the soul is perfectly at peace with God, this world presents many causes of trouble to the heart. In these cases it is a question of self-will. Christ, in the consciousness of His rejection, in the deep sorrow caused by the unbelief of the cities in which He had wrought so many miracles, had just manifested the most entire submission to His Father, and had found therein perfect rest to His soul. To this He calls all that heard Him, all that felt the need of rest to their own souls. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me," that is to say, the yoke of entire submission to His Father's will, learning of Him how to meet the trials of life; for He was "meek and lowly in heart," content to be in the lowest place at the will of His God. In fact nothing can overthrow one who is there. It is the place of perfect rest to the heart.
We never get God's fullest blessings till we are where the flesh is brought down and destroyed ... We cannot get into the simple joy and power of God till we accept the place of lowliness and humiliation -- till the heart is emptied of what is contrary to the lowliness of Christ.
The Christian is humble ... because he has given up seeking good in himself, to adore the One in whom there is nothing else.
--- J.N.D.
