To Learn Humility

I am reading a most excellent classic book called Humility by Andrew Murray. There is so much truth in it to quote, that I would not know where to start. However there is one section that seems so real and that is so relatable, it was necessary to blog about.
So I quote:

Every Christian virtually passes through these two stages in his pursuit of humility. In the first he fears and flees and seeks deliverance from all that can humble him. He has not yet learnt to seek humility at any cost. He has accepted the command to be humble, and seeks to obey it, though only to find how utterly he fails. He prays for humility, at times very earnestly; but in his secret heart he prays more, if not in word, then in wish, to be kept from the very things that will make him humble. He is not yet so in love with humility as the beauty of the Lamb of God, and the joy of heaven, that he would sell all to procure it. In his pursuit of it and his prayer for it, there is still somewhat of a sense of burden and of bondage. To humble himself has not yet become the spontaneous expression of a life and a nature that is essentially humble. It has not yet become his joy and only pleasure. He cannot yet say, "Most gladly do I glory in weakness, I take pleasure in whatever humbles me."
But can we hope to reach the stage in which this will be the case? Undoubtedly. And what will it be that brings us there? That which brought Paul there - a new revelation of the Lord Jesus. Nothing but the presence of God can reveal and expel self. A clearer insight was to be given to Paul into the deep truth that the presence of Jesus will banish every desire to seek anything in ourselves, and will make us delight in every humiliation that prepares us for His fuller manifestation. Our humiliations lead us, in the experience of the presence and power of Jesus, to choose humility as our highest blessing. Let us try to learn the lessons the story of Paul teaches us.

Can you not oh so totally relate with that?? Humility is filled with food for deep thought, but this was something I could look at and say, "That is me."
Jesus himself said that, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." I think that at least in part, to follow this command means we must learn to submit to His will and deny the flesh and self.
This must be why it is so hard for us to be humble - for it goes against our very nature as humans. We cannot be humble of ourselves, for even that we would do self-righteously or for selfish reasons. No, the only way to humility is through the work of God in us as He sanctifies and cleanses us. I quote again another fitting passage:

Place yourself before God in your utter helplessness; consent heartily to the fact of your impotence to slay or make alive yourself. Sink down into your own nothingness, in the spirit of meek and patient and trustful surrender to God. Accept every humiliation. Look upon every fellow man who tries or vexes you as a means of grace to humble you. Use every opportunity of humbling yourself before your fellow men as a help to abide humbly before God...It is the path of humility that leads to perfect death, the full and perfect experience that we are dead in Christ.

"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." - Philipians 2: 3-5