God Gives Grace to the Humble

I would like to encourage each one of you to listen carefully, and with all your heart! It really pays to work with God’s Word. Humility or pride is and will continue to be the main issue. It seems to me that a light like the noonday sun is now shining over this area. Humility is the fundamental law for all salvation, and now it has become crystal clear for me that in the deepest sense there is nothing else besides this. God gives grace to the humble, and what people think about me doesn’t matter. The proud, the high-minded, the arrogant, and those who are wise in their own eyes have God as their opponent.

The simplest concept of what humility is, can be gained by having small thoughts about oneself. When this has had a tremendous effect on me, it will be manifested by the fact that I receive grace. The humble receive grace, and to receive grace means that I receive all the help that I need. I can even spend the whole night praying to receive love, but it won’t help a bit, if I’m not humble so that I can receive grace. You only receive as much grace as the humility you possess. When it can’t be noticed that there is any progress at all in your life, it is because you are not receiving grace. You can accomplish a lot in your own human strength. You can attempt to compensate for a lack of grace by being zealous in different things. You can be capable, and you can be good, as a human being, but all that human goodness and ability doesn’t help a bit if God opposes you. You aren’t acknowledging anything; you aren’t judging yourself, but defending yourself instead.

It is apparent when things have succeeded, and there is progress in a person’s life. Most people aren’t humble at all. They transgress in what they say, and don’t even ask for forgiveness. What God wants to do so much is to transform us inwardly. You can think that you have been treated unfairly, that you haven’t been treated justly; you are occupied with what the others think about you. You aren’t occupied with God, but with how you are treated by other people. It’s because of this that you are unhappy, and can’t become happy because God is your opponent.

Many people lack a lot of light. Nothing happens in a person’s life, except through these two laws [the laws concerning pride and humility]. He who humbles himself—voluntarily abases himself—will be exalted. If you are a little bit humble, it will succeed a little bit, and if you are especially humble, it will succeed especially well. Just the little bit of understanding that you have, as a human being, should be enough to tell you that it must be detestable in God’s eyes when a human being has great thoughts about himself. How can God bless an arrogant person who has no self-acknowledgment? It’s a law of life that He can’t bless such a person.

Everything revolves around this one issue. If it doesn’t succeed, one is and will remain human and soulish. It isn’t just that (as one has understood it before) it’s right to be humble; there isn’t anything else that matters. Things just won’t open up for you if you aren’t humble. That’s why you don’t have a living interest in the Bible. It is, to the highest degree, fatal to think that you do things well and don’t need to acknowledge anything. If you judge others, then you are ungodly, but if we judge ourselves, we won’t be judged.

In James 4:6, it says: “God opposes the proud.” Then you think: “I’m not proud.” But that is exactly what you are when you don’t receive grace. He gives grace to the humble—always. When you are humble you acknowledge the truth about yourself instead of judging and criticizing the others. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God!”

God is interested in thoroughly saving us. It all depends on how we take things. Each one must understand this as well as he can. If you don’t understand it, then hide it in your heart so you can receive light later. Better late than never.

To help someone whom God is opposing would be to break God’s law. That a person humbles himself is something that almost never happens. On the contrary, people defend themselves. Humility isn’t just the main issue, but the whole issue—there is only one issue. We determine by our own choice the kind of life we will have. It is never anyone else’s fault if it’s going badly with me.