Review of Humility: True Greatness: Chapter 5 “As Each Day Begins”
C. J. Mahaney quotes John Stott again: “Our greatest foe is pride and our greatest ally is humility.” In this chapter, Mahaney provides a practical strategy “to weaken pride and cultivate humility.”
1. “The most consistently helpful item on the list is this: Reflect on the wonder of the cross of Christ.”
Mahaney refers to some powerful words of Martin Lloyd-Jones: “There is only one thing I know of that crushes me to the ground and humiliates me to the dust, and that is to look at the Son of God, and especially contemplate the cross.” According to 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, the cross levels all human pride because the message of the cross is foolishness to those who believe not (1 Corinthian 1:17-25), God does not call many wise or mighty or high born (1:26-31), and also the message that we preach is Christ crucified (2:1-5). Begin each morning mediating on “the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died” and then we can add “My richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.”
2. “Begin your day by acknowledging your dependence upon God and your need for God.”
This is necessary because sin is active and not passive and “doesn’t wake up tried, because it hasn’t been sleeping.” Therefore we must take the offensive and attack sin by spending time with God and declaring war on pride.
3. “Begin your day expressing gratefulness to God.”
“Thankfulness,” Michael Ramsey reminds us, “is a soil in which pride does not easily grow.” Gratefulness should be easy because of the “innumerable manifestations of God’s grace. It’s as if God is placing sticky-notes in our lives as daily reminders.”
4. “Practice the spiritual disciplines—prayer, study of God’s Word, worship.”
Whether our daily time in God’s Word is exhilarating or not, it is “a daily demonstration and declaration of our dependence on God and our need for Him.” This daily commitment makes a statement that, “I need You, I’m dependent upon You… This statement will help weaken pride and strengthen humility.”
5. “Seize your commute time to memorize and mediate on Scripture.”
“In the nineteenth century, the evangelical statesman William Wilberforce was largely responsible for the end of England’s participation in the slave trade. John Piper has written and spoken much about this hero of the faith, and he tells how Wilberforce used his one-mile walk to and from Parliament, where he served in the House of Commons, to memorize and mediate on Psalm 119. Wilberforce could recite the entire psalm in the course of the one-mile walk. He seized that time to speak truth to himself, not listen to himself.”
6. “Cast your cares upon Him.”
“Where there’s worry, where there’s anxiousness, pride is at the root of it.” Peter connects humility and casting our anxieties on Him in 1 Peter 5:5-7: “God resist the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God…Casting all your care upon him: for he cares for you.” God give grace to the humble and makes us free from care.
7. “Stay charged up.”
“We’re not like cordless drills, getting charged up in the morning with enough power to last us the rest of the day.” Therefore as often as possible we should continue these refueling disciplines throughout the day. When anxiety problems hit us during the day, see them as events provided by God to help cultivate humility and “cast all your cares upon Him.”
