About 124 B.C., King Benjamin was bowed down with age when he called his people together to teach them for the last time. His purpose was to make two announcements vital to their future. The first was that his son Mosiah would succeed him as king; and the second, “…the time cometh, and is not far distant,” he said, “that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men…” (Mosiah 3:5)

Benjamin then told of being awakened by an angel of God who announced the forthcoming birth of their heavenly king. Interestingly, Benjamin related verbatim the joyous words of the angel about the coming of Christ, His atonement and resurrection, and the need to put “off the natural man” that they might partake of His salvation. (Mosiah 3:19)

Then Benjamin stopped speaking, and looked “round about on the [great] multitude” about the temple. “… they had fallen to the earth, for the fear of the Lord had come upon them.” (Mosiah 4:1)

Now why did they fall to the earth? And again, when the resurrected Lord appeared to the Nephites, they fell to the earth before Him. It happens again and again in the scriptures that men of their own accord fall to the earth in the presence of the almighty. Why?

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The answer: This is humility. Benjamin’s people “had viewed themselves in their own carnal state even less than the dust of the earth.” (Mosiah 4:2) At the same time, they had come “to a [the] knowledge of the goodness of God.” And it had awakened them “to a sense of their nothingness and their worthless and fallen state -” (Mosiah 4: 5)

This, my friends, is true humility. It is to sense how low we are before Him, compared to Him, and how much we need Him.

“Humility” comes from the Latin word “humus,” which means “earth” or “soil.” The word “human” means “man of the earth.” Thus it is that to humble myself means to bring myself down to the ground from whence I came. Like Benjamin’s people, when we see and sense the goodness and exaltation of God, we perceive as naturally as breathing the difference between ourselves and Him, and we fall to the ground where we belong.

It is then and only then that He can begin to lift us up toward the true exaltation we were born for.

By these actions, Benjamin’s people received a forgiveness of their sins, and joy, and peace of conscience.

He then told them how simple it would be for them, going forward, if they wanted to retain a remission of the sins, and be filled with that love that so consumed them now.

“… I would that ye should remember,” he said, “and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves … in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come …” (Mosiah 4:11)

You see? Dust we all are, and dust we will be again. Of what have we to brag? We are all equal with one another - none better than the other. To God we are precious; before Him we are nothing. Humility is being constantly grounded in that truth. Our happiness here and hereafter depends on it. And what better way to lay hold on that humility, that sense of our place before God, than by real, constant, and worshipful prayer?