Humility: A Gateway to Blessing!

Humility: A Gateway to Blessing

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Humility is like a magnet that attracts favor, attracts blessing. The more humble you become, the more magnetic you become! A humble spirit attracts honor, attracts favor, attracts blessing. A prideful spirit repels it.

When you humble yourself, the Holy Spirit does the heavy lifting. Humility allows God to do what God does. Humility is the key to spiritual authority: more humility = more authority.

If you want to see God move in powerful ways, all you need to do is stay out of God’s way. How? Humility! Staying on your knees is the way to stay out of the way! Or to say it another way, humility is the best way to get out of the way of what God wants to do!

God can accomplish more in one day than you can accomplish in a thousand years, but you’ve got to posture yourself in humility. You’ve got to stay humble, stay hungry. Getting on your knees is the surest and fastest and truest way to get where God wants you to go.

Hit your knees!—Mark Batterson

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God descends to the humble as waters flow down from the hills into the valleys.—Tikhon

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There is no room for God in him who is full of himself.—Martin Buber

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When you are humble, you enjoy the blessings of My love, joy, peace, faith, patience, understanding, and the fruits of My Spirit in your life. These bless you in your interactions with others, and smooth over the rough edges. They make your relationship with Me more alive and real, because you realize how much it is My blessing in your life that gives you happiness, rather than anything you could work up yourself.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

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The parable of the Pharisee and publican is a sermon in brief on humility and self-praise. The Pharisee, given over to self-conceit, wrapped up in himself, seeing only his own self-righteous deeds, catalogues his virtues before God, despising the poor publican who stands afar off. He exalts himself, gives himself over to self-praise, is self-centered, and goes away unjustified, condemned and rejected by God.

The publican sees no good in himself …, does not presume to lift his eyes to heaven, but with downcast countenance smites himself on his breast, and cries out, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Our Lord with great preciseness gives us the sequel of the story of these two men, one utterly devoid of humility, the other utterly submerged in … lowliness of mind.

“I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”1

God puts a great price on humility of heart. It is good to be clothed with humility as with a garment. It is written, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.”2That which brings the praying soul near to God is humility of heart. That which gives wings to prayer is lowliness of mind. Pride, self-esteem, and self-praise effectually shut the door of prayer. He who would come to God must approach Him with self hid from his eyes. He must not be puffed up with self-conceit, nor be possessed with an overestimate of his virtues and good works.

Humility is a rare Christian grace, of great price in the courts of heaven, entering into and being an inseparable condition of effectual praying. It gives access to God when other qualities fail. Its full portrait is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. In our Lord’s teaching, humility has such prominence in His system of religion, and is such a distinguishing feature of His character, that to leave it out of His lesson on prayer would be very unseemly, would not comport with His character, and would not fit into His religious system.

Happy are they who have no righteousness of their own to plead and no goodness of their own of which to boast. Humility flourishes in the soil of a true and deep sense of our sinfulness and our nothingness. Nowhere does humility grow so rapidly and shine so brilliantly as when it confesses all sin, and trusts all grace. “I the chief of sinners am, but Jesus died for me.” That is praying ground, the ground of humility, low down, far away seemingly, but in reality brought nigh by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God dwells in the lowly places. He makes such lowly places really the high places to the praying soul.

Humility is an indispensable requisite of true prayer. It must be an attribute, a characteristic of prayer. Humility must be in the praying character as light is in the sun. Prayer has no beginning, no ending, no being, without humility. As a ship is made for the sea, so prayer is made for humility, and so humility is made for prayer.

Humility is not abstraction from self, nor does it ignore thought about self. Humility is born by looking at God and His holiness. A true nobleness and greatness are in humility. It knows and reveres the inestimable riches of the cross, and the humiliations of Jesus Christ.

Humility is much more than the absence of vanity and pride. It is a positive quality, a substantial force, which energizes prayer. Humility springs from a lowly estimate of ourselves and of our deservings. The Pharisee prayed not, though well schooled and habituated to pray, because there was no humility in his praying. The publican prayed, though banned by the public and receiving no encouragement from church sentiment, because he prayed in humility. Humility is just feeling little because we are little. Humility is realizing our unworthiness because we are unworthy, feeling and declaring ourselves sinners because we are sinners. Kneeling well becomes us as the attitude of prayer, because it betokens humility.

There is no Christ without humility. There is no praying without humility. If thou wouldst learn well the art of praying, then learn well the lesson of humility.—E. M. Bounds

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The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.3

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Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.4

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For this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives for ever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”5

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By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honor, and life.6

Published on Anchor July 2012. Read by David Salas. Music by Michael Dooley.


1 Luke 18:14.

2 James 4:6.

3 Psalm 51:17 NIV.

4 Psalm 138:6 KJV.

5 Isaiah 57:15 NIV.

6 Proverbs 22:4 KJV.