Humbly Holy

If your attitude is “holier than thou,” you’re probably not really holy at all.

January’s Awakening, Day 25

The greatest test of whether the holiness we profess to seek or to attain is truth and life will be whether it produces an increasing humility in us. In man, humility is the one thing needed to allow God’s holiness to dwell in him and shine through him. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is lack of humility. The holiest will be the humblest. 

 —Andrew Murray

Nowhere can we get to know the holiness of God, and come under His influence and power, except in the inner chamber. It has been well said: “No man can expect to make progress in holiness who is not often and long alone with God.”

 —Andrew Murray

For this is what the high and exalted One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15 NIV

            If you have to “lord” your authority and power over others, you assuredly don’t have it. If you have a prideful attitude of “holier than thou,” you most likely have truly missed the mark. If you feel the need to demand respect from others, then you have failed to earn and deserve it. None of those attitudes and behaviors are of Christ nor of the voice of the Holy Spirit within you. Those negative portrayals come from an insecurity deep within that is of a damaged self, not of God.

            If you have true authority, true holiness, and true respect due, others will sense it, and know it, appreciate it, and acknowledge it without anything additional needing to be said or shown on your part. If you are, it will be self-evident. You don’t need to parade it.