Chapter 35 - Humility

Chapter 35 referenced 7 Bible passages to focus our attention on Humility, as follows:

Jeremiah 10:23-25
Romans 1:1-17
Isaiah 6:1-8
Matthew 23:1-12
Acts 10:1-48
Matthew 3:1-17
Galatians 6:11-18

Invocation:

“O Christ, your blessed faith in me sends me to my knees. I am humbled at your confidence in me. Now help me to be in some measure worthy of your faith. Amen.” (E. Stanley Jones in Mastery)

Hymn:

The hymn for Chapter 35 was “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go” by George Matheson. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

Benediction:

“O Father, I thank you that I can stand before you neither above or below any person. Help me to take that privilege and give it to every other person. Amen.”

Meditation Selections:

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Susan Annette Muto, Thomas Merton, an anonymous Mother Superior, William Barclay, Albert E. Day and Madeleine L’Engle. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

· “Humility opens our inner ears. …Humility withstands any arrogant tendency to reduce the word to our purposes.”
· “Humility is a virtue, not a neurosis. …A humility that freezes our being and frustrates all healthy activity is not humility at all, but a disguised form of pride.”
· The quote from the anonymous Mother Superior should be read in its entirety, so I will not excerpt any of it here.
· “The first barrier to meekness arises whenever we claim as our own what is really a gift of God. …The second is the tendency to dominate others. …The third is the tendency to see only what is wrong in a situation and never to affirm the good.”
· “The way to knowledge begins with the admission of ignorance. The one man who can never learn is the man who thinks that he knows everything already.”
· “So humility is not weakness but strength, for it receives the strength of God. It is not folly, but wisdom, for it is open to the ever available wisdom of God. It is not nothingness but fullness, for into the vacuum created by the demolition of human pride and self-sufficiency, pours the fullness of God.”
· “Right prayer is a time of great, genuine humility.”
· “Humility is throwing oneself away in complete concentration on something or someone else.”

As an extra feature in the study of this chapter on humility, Elaine Roberts synopsized the Humility Chapter from Bruce Marchiano’s book The Character of a Man. The synopsis is too lengthy to quote here, but I recommend you get a copy of the book and read the chapter if you wish to further expand your understanding of humility.

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 35 not quoted) mean to you? Please post your responses to the blog site:
(http://lhcndeeperlifeclass.blogspot.com/).

Thanks for your participation.
John