A Conversation with Billy Graham
Thursday, August 13, 2026
“Satan will direct his energies against the very virtue for which you are most famous.” – C.H. Spurgeon
Rhett Palmer, a local radio host in our town, was telling me a story once about an interview he conducted with the Rev. Billy Graham. According to Rhett, their conversation went something like this…
Rhett: “Dr. Graham, you’ve traveled around the world many times; met multiple presidents, kings and queens, and numerous other heads of state; and preached the gospel to hundreds of millions of people in packed stadiums in dozens of different countries. How do you stay so humble?
Billy Graham: “Well, Rhett, the fact that we’re sitting here talking about humility means we probably don’t have it.”
Mic drop!
My guess is that, because of his worldwide fame and notoriety, it was a constant struggle for Billy Graham to remain humble with both feet planted firmly on the ground. I am confident that his wife Ruth, to whom he was married for 66 years, helped keep him humble. So did the longtime members of his ministry team – Cliff Barrows, George Beverly Shea, Grady Wilson, and T.W. Wilson – who traveled hundreds of thousands of miles with Billy and kept him accountable 24/7.
My friend, I suggest that you take Charles Spurgeon’s words to heart because Satan knows your strengths and weaknesses better than you do. For instance, he knew that Moses was referred to as “a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). And so, it’s not surprising that he tempted Moses to pridefully strike the rock twice in anger instead of speaking to it once (Numbers 20:11). The result was that Moses was allowed to see the Promised Land but barred from entering it.
Here is how the “Prince of Preachers” described that event in Moses’ life (and potentially ours)…
“If you have to this point been a firm believer, your faith will soon be attacked; if you have been meek like Moses, expect to be tempted to speak unadvisedly with your lips. The birds will peck at your ripest fruit, and the wild boar will dash his tusks at your choicest vines.”
“But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.” Galatians 6:1b (BSB)
- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President
