Humility is a very hard subject to deal with for at least two main reasons. 1) It is thought that it may take a lot of pride for one to think that he is humble enough to write on humility. 2) If one does ever think that s/he is humble that is the point one can know that s/he is not humble. Perfect humility will never be obtained in this life and so one can only realize that s/he is growing in humility rather than obtaining it perfectly. It does not necessarily take pride to write on humility, though that can certainly be the case, but can simply come from an awareness that it is a misunderstood subject and that the one writing needs to grow in it as well.
I have read several modern books on humility and found them to fall quite short of what humility really is. Older works, however, get to the real issues. Humility is not something that man can work up and it is not a virtue that we have or can just put on. It is how we receive all we have from God. Pride and faith are opposites, yet humility and faith are inseparable. The true believer walks by faith and receives all by faith because the “job” of faith is to receive grace. This is why salvation is by faith alone. It is by faith alone so that it may be by grace alone (Rom 4:16). We walk by faith when we live by the grace that faith receives. All that the believer does is to receive grace from the Lord because apart from Him we can do nothing spiritual (John 15:4-5). Pride opposes grace because pride is self-centered and wants to do something to earn it or believe that self can merit it. But faith receives grace and grace alone. It is the humble soul alone that receives grace. Grace is the motive of all that God gives the soul. We receive the love and joy of God only by grace, yet He only gives grace to the humble. So we have to understand that humility is at the very root of the Christian life.
Not all aspects of humility are necessarily related to how sinful a person is. That was a very profound thought I read several years ago (Andrew Murray) that really changed my thinking and the way I viewed myself and especially my heart. There is a humility that is related to the fact that human beings are creatures in the presence of their Creator. If all humility were related to sin, then Jesus Christ could not be the perfect standard of humility as He was perfectly sinless. He was without sin in His Divine being and yet humbled Himself to clothe Himself in human flesh. While clothed in human flesh the sinless Christ humbled Himself to go to the cross to take the sins of others upon Himself and suffer for their sins. This humility that He had, beyond question, was apart from His own sin. This shows us that all human beings at all times and in all ways are to be humbled before God.
But what is humility? Sure it is the proper position of a creature before its Creator. But what is that? If pride in the human creature is to be full of self-love, self-sufficiency, and self-centeredness, then humility is the emptiness of self in the creature. Pride is the spawn of the devil, but to be emptied of that is humility and God fills the humble with Himself. God dwells with the lowly and the contrite in spirit (Isa 57:15). The world thinks of humility as one that is not so dogmatic and thinks that s/he may be wrong and cannot have a conviction of a strong view on anything. The world that has invaded the Church thinks of humility as those who will not stand for anything. But we must remember that Jesus Christ was perfect in humility and He strongly stood for truth. Humility is not weakness, but it is strength or leads to strength since it is the emptiness of self that leads to God filling the creature. The believer is one that has power dwelling in him or her, though that power is of God and is for His glory.
“Humility is the only soil in which the graces take root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone assumes the right attitude before God and allows Him as God to do all….From the beginning, let us admit that there is nothing so nature to man, nothing so insidious and hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous, as pride. Let us feel that nothing but a very determined and persevering waiting on God and Christ will disclose how lacking we are in the grace of humility, and how weak we are to obtain what we seek. Let us study the character of Christ until our souls are filled with the love and admiration of His humility. And let us believe that, when we are broken down under a sense of our pride and realize our inability to cast it out, Jesus Christ Himself will give us this grace as a part of His wondrous life within us.”
Pride in our soul is far worse than any form of cancer in our body. We must have the Great Physician deal with this pride by cutting it out with His discipline so that He may in His great mercy and grace give us the grace of His humility in our souls. The Great Physician would have us die to pride and self and we must seek that from Him.
God Loves... Himself 
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