Shifted Gaze

Echoes of Truth

January 22nd

Theme: Shifted Gaze

 

Humility is the displacement of self by the enthronement of God — Andrew Murray

 

Humility, the very heart of hunger for God. It all begins with entertaining more of God’s thoughts in your heart and taking it off yourself. Any one who keeps her gaze on herself will certainly be full of themselves and anyone whose gaze is fixed on the Lord like a suckling child with her mother(Psalm 131:2), will be well fed by God. 

 

Proverbs 8:34 describes a beggar who finds great joy in  begging. To beg people for your daily meal is to relegate oneself to the humble state of being needy. The verse says ‘Joyful are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home!’ 

 

In other words, anyone who turns out to be such beggars who stand daily at the Lord’s gate to be fed by Him will certainly put on the humble state of a poor man who has nothing to boast of. 

 

This is why humility is inseparable from hunger for God. A soul that longs for God cannot remain crowded with self. It needs to be emptied, and that is what humility does. It creates space. It makes time to daily wait at the Lord’s gate to be fed by Him.  It empties the heart of competing loyalties. 

 

As James writes, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). God says the one who is with humble and contrite heart will never be despised by HIm because such a person has a spirit that seeks absolute dependence on God (Psalm 51:17; Isaiah 66:2). 

 

When God takes His rightful place at the centre, self naturally moves aside. Like that line from the popular hymn affirms, “none of self, and all of Thee.”  This is the right order, because the throne of the heart can only seat one ruler at a time.

 

When John the Baptist was standing at the height of influence in his ministry, with crowds gathering to hear him speak from time to time, on one of such occasions, he uttered some very striking confessions: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). 

Humility!!

The kind that only a convinced man can conceive. John had seen the Lamb in His glory, and he knew that self was not in any way worthy of the throne.

 

Mary, the mother of Jesus was chosen because God had weighed her heart and saw that it was not fixed on herself but a ready and willing heart to submit to the Master’s will. Her heart, humble, was one of a gentle and quiet spirit which had great value in GOd’s sight (1 Peter 3:3-4). Her humble confession was “Behold the maidservant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your word” (Luke 1:38). God’s enthronement in her life displaced fear of the unknown, the future.

 

Every genuine hunger begins with an admission of lack, and without humility, it is hard for the natural man to admit that lack. Contrary to the popular mantra that the world echoes now, Sis, in all honesty, you are not enough. We are not enough. That’s what God wants to hear you confess. Else, God will believe you do not need Him, and that’s why some end up leaving His presence empty.

 

True hunger is a state propelled by outright humility. It is the posture that declares, “Without You, I can do nothing” (John 15:5). Jesus is our perfect example of this. Though He was fully God, He still lived in complete dependence on the Father. By Himself, He confessed that “The Son can do nothing of Himself” (John 5:19). 

 

This humility did not steal from His power. In fact, it exalted Him above every other name. His hunger for the Father’s will kept Him aligned. It helped Him remain obedient, and ultimately, filled with authority.

If you also notice, every historical revival began with brokenness. Every genuine move of God has been preceded by repentance and a deep awareness of spiritual poverty. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Poverty of spirit is the birthplace of hunger.

The power of humility cannot be overemphasized. The heart that makes room for God becomes a dwelling place for His presence. This is why humility intensifies hunger. 

The more God is enthroned in a man’s heart, the more the heart longs hungers for Him and the gaze is fixed on Him as a suckling child to her mother. 

 

Listen to this short message by Elisabeth Elliot on humility:

https://elisabethelliot.org/resource-library/gateway-to-joy/a-quiet-life-humility/

 

Let Us Pray:
Lord, I plead that You teach my heart the humility that awakens true hunger for You. Empty me of self-reliance and false sufficiency. Enthrone Yourself in my life until my deepest longing is to know You and remain in Your presence. Lord, deliver me from subtle pride that dulls my hunger and makes me content without You. Make me poor in spirit. Just like Jesus, help me to be completely dependent on You, and fiercely hungry for Your presence. In Jesus’ name, Amen.