In a world that often celebrates self-promotion and success, the quiet voice of Andrew Murray continues to speak powerful truths about the beauty of humility.
This South African writer and pastor, whose words have guided Christians for generations, understood that true strength often lies in lowering ourselves rather than lifting ourselves up.
Murray’s book “The Journey Toward Holiness” touches hearts even today with its simple yet profound wisdom.
His writings on humility aren’t just religious ideas – they’re practical guides for anyone seeking to live with more grace and less ego. When we put aside our pride, Murray teaches, we make room for something greater to work through us.
These selected quotes capture the essence of Murray’s teachings on humility – the virtue he believed was essential for spiritual growth.
Each line offers a gentle invitation to look beyond ourselves and discover the freedom that comes with letting go of pride.
For over a century, readers have found that spending just minutes each day with Murray’s devotionals can shift their entire perspective.
Read Also: 100 Bible Verses That Bring Peace and Comfort: Uplifting Scriptures for Every Situation
Andrew Murray Quotes on Humility
-
“Humility is the consent of the creature to let God be all, the current of itself to his working alone.”
-
“It is not something that we bring to God, or that he bestows; it is simply the sense of entire nothingness that comes when we see how truly God is everything. When the creature realizes that this is a place of honor, and consents to be—with his will, his mind, and his affections—the vessel in which the life and glory of God are to work and manifest themselves, he sees that humility is simply acknowledging the truth of his position as creature and yielding to God His place.”
-
“Christ was nothing so that God might be all–and it was his source of perfect peace and joy.”
-
“It is only when we, as the Son, truly know and show that we can do nothing of ourselves that God will do everything.”
-
“The root of all virtue and grace, of all faith and acceptable worship, is that we know that we have nothing but what we receive, and bow in deepest humility to wait upon God for it.”
-
“It is only by the indwelling of Christ in His divine humility that we can become truly humble”
-
“It is not sin, but grace, that will make me know myself as a sinner…it is only grace that works that sweet humility that becomes joy to the soul as its second nature.”
-
“Humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust.”
-
“Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike. O that all would believe that this is the nobility of the kingdom of heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the King of heaven displayed, that this is Godlike, to humble oneself, to become the servant of all!”
-
“The great thing in prayer is to feel that we are putting our supplications into the bosom of omnipotent love.”
-
“The only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us, and carry out, in our ordinary conduct; the insignficances of daily life are the importances and the tests of eternity, because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us.”
-
“We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly world, and can bring its power down to earth.”
-
“Humility is the only soil in which the graces root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God, and allows Him as God to do all.”
-
“Our humility before God has no value, except that it prepares us to reveal the humility of Jesus to our fellow men.”
-
“As natural and easy as it has been to be proud, it must become natural for us to be humble.”
-
“A faithful servant may be wiser than the master, and yet retain the true spirit and posture of the servant. The humble man looks upon every, the feeblest and unworthiest, child of God, and honors him and prefers him in honor as the son of a King.”
-
“Humiliation is the only ladder to honoring God’s Kingdom.”
-
Like“Prayer [is] the quiet, persistent living of our life of desire and faith in the presence of our God.”
-
“Fellow-Christians, do let us study the Bible portrait of the humble man. And let us ask our brethren, and ask the world, whether they recognize in us the likeness to the original.”
-
“Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord, where I can go in and shut the door, and kneel to my Father in secret, and am at peace as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and above is trouble.”
-
“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.”
-
“Here is the path to the higher life: down, lower down! Just as water always seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds men abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless.”
-
“Humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all.”
-
“Each time, before you intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!”
-
“Humility is the displacement of self by the enthronement of God.”
-
“The sooner I learn to forget myself in the desire that He may be glorified, the richer will be the blessing that prayer will bring to myself. No one ever loses by what he sacrifices to the Father.”
-
“God has a plan for His Church upon earth. But alas! we too often make our plan, and we think that we know what ought to be done. We ask God first to bless our feeble efforts, instead of absolutely refusing to go unless God go before us.”
-
“God cannot hear the prayers on our lips often because the desires of our heart after the world cry out to Him much more strongly and loudly than the our desires for Him.”
-
“The highest glory of the creature is in being only a vessel, to receive and enjoy and show forth the glory of God. It can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be all. Water always fills first the lowest places. The lower, the emptier a man lies before God, the speedier and the fuller will be the inflow of the diving glory.”
-
“Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue. And so pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil.”
Read Also: Top 100 Bible Verses for Strength: Find Courage, Hope, and Renewal in Scripture
Andrew Murray Quotes on Faith, Spiritual Growth
-
“Our forgiving love toward men is the evidence of God’s forgiving love in us. It is a necessary condition of the prayer of faith.”
-
“I need to spend time with God even when I do not know what to pray.”
-
“Answered prayer is the interchange of love between the Father and His child.”― Andrew Murray
-
“A dead Christ I must do everything for; a living Christ does everything for me.”
-
“Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature; the Eternal Love humbling itself, clothing itself in the garb of meekness and gentleness, to win and serve and save us.”
-
“Faith expects from God what is beyond all expectation.”
-
“Our love to God is measured by our everyday fellowship with others and the love it displays.”
-
“Men ought to seek with their whole hearts to be filled with the Spirit of God. Without being filled with the Spirit, it is utterly impossible that an individual Christian or a church can ever live or work as God desires.”
-
“God has no more precious gift to a church or an age than a man who lives as an embodiment of his will, and inspires those around him with the faith of what grace can do.”
-
“Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential part.”
-
“Let it be your business every day, in the secrecy of the inner chamber, to meet the holy God. You will be repaid for the trouble it may cost you. The reward will be sure and rich.”
-
“We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly world, and can bring its power down to earth.”
More Andrew Murray Quotes
-
“Do not confuse work and fruit. There may be a good deal of work for Christians that is not the fruit of the Heavenly Vine.”― ANDREW MURRAY
-
“Being filled with the Spirit is simply this – having my whole nature yielded to His power. When the whole soul is yielded to the Holy Spirit, God Himself will fill it.”― Andrew Murray, Absolute Surrender
-
“The waiting on God for His presence and power in daily life will be the only true preparation for waiting for Christ in humility and true holiness. The waiting for Christ coming from heaven to take us to heaven will give the waiting on God its true tone of hopefulness and joy. The Father, who, in His own time, will reveal His Son from heaven, is the God who, as we wait on Him, prepares us for the revelation of His Son. The present life and the coming glory are inseparably connected in God and in us.”― Andrew Murray, Waiting on God
-
“There are a thousand questions that at times come up, and the attempt to answer them becomes a weariness and a burden. It is because you have forgotten you are in Christ, whom God has made to be your wisdom. Let it be your first care to abide in Him in undivided fervent devotion of heart; when the heart and the life are right, rooted in Christ, knowledge will come in such measure as Christ’s own wisdom sees meet. And without such abiding in Christ the knowledge does not really profit, but is often most hurtful. The soul satisfies itself with thoughts which are but the forms and images of truth, without receiving the truth itself in its power. God’s way is ever first to give us, even though it be but as a seed, the thing itself, the life and the power, and then the knowledge. Man seeks the knowledge first, and often, alas! never gets beyond it. God gives us Christ, and in Him hid the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. O let us be content to possess Christ, to dwell in Him, to make Him our life, and only in a deeper searching into Him, to search and find the knowledge we desire. Such knowledge is life indeed.”― Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ
-
“Come, and however feeble you feel, just wait in His presence. As a feeble, sickly invalid is brought out into the sunshine to let its warmth go through him, come with all that is dark and cold in you into the sunshine of God’s holy, omnipotent love, and sit and wait there, with the one thought: Here I am, in the sunshine of His love. As the sun does its work in the weak one who seeks its rays, God will do His work in you. Oh, do trust Him fully. “Wait on the Lord! Be strong, and let your heart take courage! Yea, wait thou on the Lord!”― Andrew Murray, Waiting On God: Daily Messages for a Month
-
“Your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. COLOSSIANS 3:3–4 (NKJV)”― Andrew Murray, The Andrew Murray Daily Reader In Today’s Language
-
“As long as in our worship of God we are chiefly occupied with our own thoughts and exercises, we shall not meet Him who is a Spirit, the unseen One. But to the man who withdraws himself from all that is of the world and man, and prepares to wait upon God alone, the Father will reveal Himself. As he forsakes and gives up and shuts out the world, and the life of the world, and surrenders himself to be led of Christ into the secret of God’s presence, the light of the Father’s love will rise upon him.”― Andrew Murray, Lord, Teach Us To Pray
-
“We are in such a habit of evaluating God and His work in us by what we feel that it is very likely that on some occasions we will be discouraged because we do not feel any special blessing. Above everything, when you wait on God, you must do so in the spirit of hope.”― Andrew Murray, Power in Prayer: Classic Devotions to Inspire and Deepen Your Prayer Life“A firm confidence that the blessing is actually within our reach is the first step toward obtaining it and a powerful impulse in the pursuit.”― Andrew Murray, Experiencing the Holy Spirit
-
“Nothing so reveals a defective spiritual life in a minister or a congregation as the lack of believing and unceasing prayer. Prayer is the pulse of the spiritual life. It is the great means by which ministers and laypeople alike receive the blessing and power of heaven. Persevering and believing prayer precludes a strong and abundant life.”― Andrew Murray, Living a Prayerful Life
-
“Patient, persevering, believing prayer that is offered up to God in the name of the Lord Jesus has always brought the blessing sooner or later.”― Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer: A 31-Day Study
-
“It is one thing for a minister to be an advocate and supporter of missions: it is another and very different thing for him to understand that they are the chief end of the Church, and therefore the chief end for which his congregation exists. It is only when this truth masters him in its spiritual power, that he will be able to give the subject of missions its true place in his ministry.”― Andrew Murray, The Key to the Missionary Problem
-
“love to God by your love to your brother; that is the one standard by which God will judge your love to Him. If the love of God is in your heart, you will love your brother. The fruit of the Spirit is love.”― Andrew Murray, Absolute Surrender
-
“The blood was shed to unite us to God.”― Andrew Murray, The Power Of The Blood Of Jesus
-
“On earth Christ was a learner in the school of obedience; in heaven He teaches it to His disciples here on earth. In a world where disobedience reigns unto death, the restoration of obedience is in Christ’s hands. As in His own life, so in us, He has undertaken to maintain it. He teaches and works it in us.”― Andrew Murray, The Andrew Murray Collection: 21 Classic Works
-
“O my Lord! strengthen my faith so in the Father’s tender love and kindness, that as often as I feel sinful or troubled, the first instinctive thought may be to go where I know the Father waits me, and where prayer never can go unblessed. Let the thought that He knows my need before I ask, bring me, in great restfulness of faith, to trust that He will give what His child requires. O let the place of secret prayer become to me the most beloved spot on earth.”― Andrew Murray, Lord, Teach Us To Pray
-
“Nothing but the presence of God can reveal and expel self.”― Andrew Murray, Humility
-
“But the chief truth He reiterated was ever this: to pray in faith. And He defined that faith, not only as a trust in God’s goodness or power, but as the definite assurance that we have received the very thing we ask. And then, in view of the delay in the answer, He insisted on perseverance and urgency. We must be followers of those “who through faith and patience inherit the promises”—the faith that accepts the promise, and knows it has what it has asked—the patience that obtains the promise and inherits the blessing.”― Andrew Murray, The Ministry of Intercession: A Plea for More Prayer
-
“Reconciliation, pardon, and cleansing from sin, have all an unspeakable value; they all, however, point onwards to sanctification. It is God’s will that each one who has been marked by the precious blood, should know that it is a divine mark, characterizing his entire separation to God; that this blood calls him to an undivided consecration to a life, wholly for God, and that this blood is the promise, and the power of a participation in God’s holiness, through which God Himself will make His abiding place in him, and be his God.”― Andrew Murray, The Power of the Blood of Jesus
-
“Our Lord, who learned obedience by waiting every moment to see and hear the Father, has a great lesson to teach us: It is only when, like Him, with Him, in and through Him, we continually walk with God and hear His voice that we can possibly attempt to offer God the obedience He asks. From”― Andrew Murray, A Life of Obedience
-
“Jesus would train us to the blessed life of consecration and service, in which our interests are all subordinate to the Name, and the Kingdom, and the Will of the Father.”― Andrew Murray, Lord, Teach Us To Pray
-
“Faith is not merely a thought of which I lay hold, a conviction that possesses me—it is a life. Faith brings the soul into direct contact with God, and the unseen things of heaven, but above all, with the blood of Jesus. It Is Not Possible to Believe in Victory over Satan by the Blood without Being Myself Brought Entirely under its Power. Belief in the power of the blood awakens in me a desire for an experience of its power in myself; each experience of its power makes belief in victory more glorious.”― Andrew Murray, The Power of the Blood of Jesus
-
“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” Yes, for HIM. Seek not only the help, the gift, thou needest seek: HIMSELF; wait for HIM. Give God His glory by resting in Him, by trusting him fully, by waiting patiently for Him. This patience honors Him greatly; it leaves Him, as God on the throne, to do His work; it yields self wholly into His hands. It lets God be God. If thy waiting be for some special request, wait patiently. If thy waiting be more the exercise of the spiritual life seeking to know and have more of God, wait patiently. Whether it be in the shorter specific periods of waiting, or as the continuous habit of the souls. Rest in the Lord, be still before the Lord, and wait patiently. “They that wait on the Lord shall inherit the land.” “My soul, wait thou only upon God!”― Andrew Murray, Waiting on God
-
“…the most heavily laden branches bow the lowest.”― Andrew Murray, “Abide In Christ” / To Be “Like Christ”
-
“The power to believe a promise depends entirely on our faith in the one who promises.”― Andrew Murray, Believing Prayer
-
“Forsake All I ask you to remember that the disciples were men who had forsaken all to follow Jesus. The Lord Jesus went to a fisherman and said, “Leave your net behind and follow Me.” To another man He said, “Leave your position as a tax collector and come and follow Me.” They did it. They left those things behind and followed Jesus. They could later say by the mouth of Peter, We have forsaken all and followed thee (Matthew 19:27). They left their homes, their families, and their good names. Men mocked and laughed at them. Men called them the disciples of Jesus, and when He was despised and hated, they were hated too. They identified themselves with Him and gave themselves up entirely to follow Him. This is the first step to being filled with the Holy Spirit. We must forsake all to follow Christ.”― Andrew Murray, Absolute Surrender (Updated and Annotated): The Blessedness of Forsaking All and
-
“If I bear the name of another, I have given up my own name and my own independent life.”― Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer
-
“Thy kingdom come.’ The Father is a King and has a kingdom. The son and heir of a king has no higher ambition than the glory of his father’s kingdom. In time of war or danger this becomes his passion; he can think of nothing else. The children of the Father are here in the enemy’s territory, where the kingdom, which is in heaven, is not yet fully manifested. What more natural than that, when they learn to hallow the Father-name, they should long and cry with deep enthusiasm: `Thy kingdom come.”― Andrew Murray, WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER
-
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding.” In all religion we have to use these two powers. The mind as to gather knowledge from God’s word, and prepare the food by which the heart with the inner life is to be nourished. But here comes in a terrible danger, of our leaning to our own understanding, and trusting in our apprehension of divine things. People imagine that if they are occupied with the truth, the spiritual life will as a matter of course be strengthened. And this is by no means the case. The understanding deals with conceptions and images of divine things, but it cannot reach the real life of the soul. Hence the command, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding.” It is with the heart man believeth, and comes into touch with God. It is in the heart God has given His Spirit, to be there to us the presence and the power of God working in us.”― Andrew Murray, Waiting on God
-
“The Lord gave the wonderful promise of the free use of His Name with the Father in conjunction with doing His works. The disciple who lives only for Jesus’ work and Kingdom, for His will and honor, will be given the power to appropriate the promise. Anyone grasping the promise only when he wants something very special for himself will be disappointed, because he is making Jesus the servant of his own comfort. But whoever wants to pray the effective prayer of faith because he needs it for the work of the Master will learn it, because he has made himself the servant of his Lord’s interests.”― Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer
Read Also: 100 Bible Verses About Love: God’s Word on Love for Relationships, Marriage, and Life
