The Blessed Life of Humility

Sep 6

6 min read

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” — Matthew 5:5

For a long time, when I thought about the Kingdom of God, I often thought about ministry, revival, spiritual gifts, and doing something significant for God. I wanted to see His Kingdom come in the places around me, and I thought perhaps this would happen through starting new ministries, gathering people, or building something meaningful for Him. But in this season, the Lord has been teaching me something deeper. The Kingdom of God is not only something He wants to build around us; it is something He first wants to form within us. One of the deepest things He wants to form in us is humility.

Learning the Heart of Jesus

In Philippians 2, Paul points us to Jesus as the example of how we are to live with one another. Jesus did not hold tightly to His position or His rights. Instead, He humbled Himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient even to death on a cross. Jesus also said, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29). Humility is not simply one good Christian character trait among many. It is at the heart of who Jesus is.

Andrew Murray describes humility as a place of entire dependence upon God. That understanding has challenged me deeply. Humility is not thinking badly about ourselves, pretending we have no gifts, or becoming passive. Humility is recognizing that everything we have comes from God and that we are completely dependent upon Him. Jesus modeled this perfectly. Throughout His life on earth, He continually depended on the Father. He listened, obeyed, trusted, and stayed in communion with Him.

Dallas Willard also writes about the life Jesus invites us into—a life where we place our confidence in God rather than living anxiously or trying to control everything ourselves. The Christian life was never meant to be a life of constantly proving ourselves. The more I understand this, the more I realize that humility and rest are deeply connected. When I know that my Father is my source, I do not have to make people see me, convince everyone that I am valuable, or prove that I am called. I can obey God and trust Him with the results.

Pride Can Hide in Unexpected Places

Pride is not always loud or obvious. Sometimes pride looks like needing to defend ourselves when we feel misunderstood. Sometimes it appears when we become angry because someone has judged us unfairly. At other times, it can look like wanting people who once rejected us to see that we are actually successful. Pride can even show up in spiritual ways, such as wanting others to recognize our gifting, our calling, or our ministry.

Andrew Murray writes strongly about the destructive power of pride, while Dallas Willard speaks about anger, contempt, judgment, and condemnation and how deeply these attitudes can damage people. This has become very personal for me. Over the past few years, I have experienced different hurts in Christian community. There have been times when I felt misunderstood, accused, looked down on, or spoken to in ways that deeply hurt me. My natural response is often to explain myself. I want people to understand my heart, and I want to tell them why their judgment is not accurate. Sometimes I want to prove that I am not who they think I am.

Recently, however, the Holy Spirit has been teaching me not to respond out of hurt or anger. He has been teaching me to forgive and to bring my pain into His Presence instead of allowing it to become bitterness. I have begun to realize that one of the deeper questions in these moments is whether I want to be understood by people more than I want to become like Jesus. That question has stayed with me because humility is often formed precisely in the places where we feel misunderstood, overlooked, or unfairly judged.

The Need to Prove Ourselves

One area where the Lord has been speaking to me is social media. Sometimes I feel the temptation to show people what I am doing, especially when I think about people who once looked down on me or did not believe in me. There can be a hidden desire inside that says, “Maybe if they see what I am doing now, they will know they were wrong about me.”

I sense the Lord reminding me that I do not need to prove my worth to anyone. This does not mean we cannot share testimonies, ministry, or what God is doing. However, God cares deeply about the place in our hearts from which we share. Am I sharing because I want to glorify Him, or am I trying to heal an old wound by gaining recognition? Am I serving because I love Jesus and people, or am I secretly hoping ministry will prove that I am valuable? Humility allows God to touch even these hidden motivations.

A Humble Community Is a Blessed Community

One thing I appreciate in Andrew Murray’s writing is his emphasis that humility must be seen in the way Christians treat one another. It is possible to appear deeply devoted to God and still be harsh with people. It is possible to pray, preach, evangelize, and serve while carrying pride, anger, or contempt toward others. Christlikeness is revealed not only in public ministry but also in relationships.

Dallas Willard draws on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s picture of Christ standing between believers in true spiritual community. Instead of trying to control, judge, or fix one another, we bring one another before God. Jesus demonstrated this beautifully with Peter. Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him, yet He did not shame him. Instead, He said, “I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32). Jesus responded to Peter’s coming failure with prayer rather than condemnation.

I often wonder what would happen if our churches and ministry teams became communities like that. What if, instead of quickly judging one another, we prayed for one another? What if, instead of assuming motives, we asked God for His perspective? What if our first response to relational conflict was to bring it into the Presence of God? I believe this kind of humility creates an atmosphere where the Kingdom of God can flourish.

What I Learned From Kingdom Community

Years ago, when I lived in California, and was part of a Kingdom community, I experienced something that marked me deeply. I loved the sense of Kingdom community there. Looking back, I think one of the things that impacted me was a culture where people were often encouraged, believed in, and given room to grow. Of course, no community is perfect, but something about that environment caused me to long for relationships shaped by honor, grace, faith, and encouragement.

When I returned to Taiwan, I carried that longing with me. For a long time, I thought the way to see that kind of Kingdom culture here was to build something new. Now I think God is showing me that before He builds something through me, He wants to build something in me. If I want to see a community of honor, I must learn to honor when I am misunderstood. If I want to see a community of grace, I must learn to give grace when I am hurt. If I want to see a community without condemnation, I must allow God to remove condemnation from my own heart. If I want to see a humble Church, humility has to begin with me.

Becoming an Empty Vessel

Andrew Murray describes the beauty of becoming an empty vessel before God—someone who depends completely upon Him so that His life can flow through them. That image has become meaningful to me. I do not want my life to be built around proving how gifted I am, how much I understand, or how much ministry I can do. I want Christ to be formed in me. I want prayer to become more natural than self-defense, forgiveness to become more natural than resentment, and grace to become more natural than judgment.

I am beginning to see that this kind of transformation does not happen through willpower alone. We become like Jesus by staying close to Jesus. Willard writes that in His Presence, our inner life is transformed until His way of living increasingly becomes natural to us. That gives me hope because humility is not something I have to manufacture. It grows as I remain with Him.

For many years, I thought seeing the Kingdom of God meant doing something visible for God. Now I am learning that the Kingdom can also come in a much quieter way: when God changes the way I respond to hurt, when He frees me from the need to defend myself, when He teaches me to forgive, and when He makes me secure enough in His love that I no longer need to prove my worth. Before He uses me to build something around me, He is first forming the nature of Christ within me. Perhaps that is where the blessed life of humility really begins.