Humility

Isaiah 6:5. “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone: because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell i the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

I  suppose that there are people who, after seeing Isaiah’s vision, would have written a book about their fantastic experience and made a lot of fame and money for themselves.

Isaiah was not that kind of person. He fell to the floor, face to the ground, in humility before the perfect holiness of God Almighty. He recognized his own sin, and that of his people. He knew he was unworthy.  I wonder how many of us know very well how unworthy we are. Every now and then I get a client who tells me she just doesn’t feel worthy of God’s love.  I tell her, “That’s because you’re not.  No one is.  If we could be worthy, then Jesus didn’t have to die. That’s what makes God’s gift of salvation so amazing–we are not worthy, yet He loves us. That’s amazing grace, amazing love, amazing mercy.”

W.E.Vine says, “The nearer we are to the Lord the greater the sense of our utter unworthiness. Further, in this our own rightful attitude before Him we learn to identify ourselves with the condition of those fellow-members of the Body of Christ who have proved unfaithful and have lapsed into evil ways, and to confess their sins, as ours. Only so can we really be prepared to give an effectual testimony.  It is one thing to condemn the saints; it is quite another to take upon ourselves the confession of their sins as ours.  It is that which causes the Holy Spirit to use us for real blessing amidst them.”

There’s a lot to think about in that paragraph. It surely denies the validity of self-righteousness, of finger-pointing, of condemnation toward other believers. It should make us all stop and think.