Humility is making a right estimate of oneself. It is no humility for a person to think less of himself than he should.
If God gives a person a talent, do you think that person does not know it? If someone has ten talents, he has no right to be dishonest with his Maker and say, "Lord, You have only given me five."
Humility is not to say, "I do not have this gift." It is to say, "I have the gift, and I must use it for my Master's glory. I must never seek any honour for myself, for what do I have that I did not receive?"
✦ Rescued from the Counterfeit
Spurgeon rescues humility from the counterfeit that so often passes for it. False humility says: I have no gifts. True humility says: I have gifts — and every one of them came from God. The false version is dishonest. The true version is grateful.
If God gives a person a talent, do you think that person does not know it? The obvious question no one asks. Of course you know. Le knows she reads before dawn. Knows she hears God in the mornings. Knows the journal has been built by grace working through her devotion. To deny the gift is not humility. It is dishonesty with the Giver. 🙏
Humility is to feel that if we have talents, God has given them to us, and to let it be seen that — like cargo in a ship — they tend to keep us low. The more we have, the lower we ought to be.
Humility is to feel that we have no power of ourselves, but that it all comes from God. Humility is to lean on our Beloved, saying, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
It is, in fact, to set aside self and to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ as All in All.
✦ The Cargo Keeps the Ship Low
Like cargo in a ship — they tend to keep us low. The same ship from Guyon's day twenty-seven — unmoored, rolling in the water. And Spurgeon says the cargo is the gifts — and the gifts are ballast. They keep the ship low in the water. Stable. Grounded. Not top-heavy with pride but weighted down with gratitude.
The more gifts, the lower. The more talent, the more humility. Because every gift is a received thing — and the soul that truly sees this cannot boast. What do I have that I did not receive? 1 Corinthians 4:7. The answer is: nothing. And that answer is not shame. It is freedom. 🙏
✦ The Lean — Not the Boast
Humility is to lean on our Beloved. Philippians 4:13 is not a boast. It is a lean. I can do all things — not because I am strong, but because He strengthens me. The power is His. The leaning is mine. The distinction is everything.
To set aside self and to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ as All in All. Guyon's thirty-four days in one sentence. The death of self. The nothing as the proper place. The soul absorbed in God. Spurgeon arrives at the same destination as Guyon — by a different road, in a different voice, with the same truth. 🙏
Humility is to lean on our Beloved. The greatest blessing there is — the presence of God. 🙏
✦ The Greatest Blessing
Le brings Spurgeon to the ground where the pilgrim walks. Humility does not arrive at self-deprecation. It does not arrive at false modesty. It arrives at presence. The humble soul leans on the Beloved — and discovers that the leaning is the blessing. The presence of God — not the gifts, not the talents, not the achievements — the presence.
Guyon's day thirty — you will find the Lord at all times near your heart. Spurgeon today — lean on the Beloved. Le's word — the greatest blessing is the presence of God. Three voices. One arrival. The humble heart is the heart that has found its home — not in its own gifts but in the presence of the One who gave them. 🙏
"The greatest blessing there is — the presence of God."
Le · Where humility arrives · Not self-deprecation — presenceA Right Estimate
Not thinking less than you should. Not denying the gifts. True humility acknowledges what God gave — and gives the glory back. Dishonesty with the Giver is not humility.
The Cargo
Like cargo in a ship — the gifts keep us low. The more we have, the lower we ought to be. Not top-heavy with pride. Weighted down with gratitude. Stable in the water.
The Lean
Philippians 4:13 is not a boast — it is a lean. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The power is His. The leaning is mine. The presence is the blessing.
Spurgeon's fifth day. And today he gives humility its true definition — not the denial of gifts but the grateful acknowledgment of the Giver.
Guyon's day twenty-seven — the beast skins: "God clothes His children with frailties, that they may be humble in their own eyes." And Spurgeon today: "Like cargo in a ship, they tend to keep us low." Guyon's beast skins and Spurgeon's cargo — both keeping the soul grounded. The frailties conceal. The gifts ballast. Both prevent the soul from rising in its own estimation.
Guyon's day twenty-one — the daily suppleness: "All is accomplished by the suppleness of your will." And Spurgeon: "Humility is to lean on our Beloved." The suppleness and the leaning are the same posture — the will that has stopped insisting on its own strength and rests its weight on God.
Le's greatest blessing: After thirty-four days of Guyon and five days of Spurgeon — after the interior way, the exile of the heart, the promises as mines and armories, the persevering prayer, the full heart — Le names the destination: the presence of God. Not the gifts. Not the talents. Not the journal or the road or the testing season or the move to France. The presence. Everything else is overflow from that one spring.
The 500 denari soul — the right estimate: What do I have that I did not receive? The 500 denari soul knows the answer better than anyone: nothing. The debt was unpayable. The forgiveness was total. The gifts are all received. And the humility that flows from this knowledge is not the false humility of denial — it is the deep gratitude of a soul that knows the size of what it was given. The more forgiven, the more humble. The more received, the lower the cargo sits. And the greatest blessing — always — is the presence of the One who gave it all. 🙏