“Humility comes before honor.” Proverbs 15:33
Humiliation of soul always brings a positive blessing with it.
If we empty our hearts of self, God will fill them with his love. He who desires close communion with Christ should remember the word of the Lord, “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”
Stoop if you would climb to heaven. Do we not say of Jesus, “He descended that he might ascend?” So must you. You must grow downward so that you may grow upward, for the sweetest fellowship with heaven is to be had by humble souls, and by them alone. God will deny no blessing to a thoroughly humbled spirit.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” with all its riches and treasures. The whole treasury of God shall be transferred over by deed of gift to the soul that is humble enough to be able to receive it without growing proud because of it.
God blesses us all up to the full measure and extremity of what it is safe for him to do. If you do not get a blessing, it is because it is not safe for you to have one. If our heavenly Father were to let your unhumbled spirit win a victory in his holy war, you would pilfer the crown for yourself, and meeting with a fresh enemy you would fall a victim. So you are kept low for your own safety.
When a man is sincerely humble and never ventures to touch so much as a grain of the praise, there is scarcely any limit to what God will do for him. Humility makes us ready to be blessed by the God of all grace, and fits us to deal efficiently with our fellow men. True humility is a flower that will adorn any garden. This is a sauce with which you may season every dish of life, and you will find an improvement in every case. Whether prayer or praise, whether work or suffering, the genuine salt of humility cannot be used in excess.
Adapted from Morning and Evening.
