Damaged relationships, failed ventures, inability to grow spiritually, always going round in circles – never really achieving much. Many beginnings – few endings: these things can begin to pierce our blindness about our self-focus and make us realise we need help outside of ourselves.

Worship is the antidote to self

Spurgeon pointed out that if the test of true Christianity is an all-consuming, heart-felt passion for Jesus, then it follows that there are many who profess to be Christians who would not pass that test. “If Christ be anything He must be everything,” Spurgeon wrote. “Oh rest not till love and faith in Jesus be the master passions of your soul!”

To be passionate about Jesus – this is both the gateway to – and the result of – the transformed life!  A mind renewed! Perceptions and emotions transformed! Perfect peace and calm – even as dark clouds are gathering, and “all around and above is trouble‘. It is the source of heart-felt worship. And worship is the antidote to self-focus.

• We can’t free ourselves from the tyranny of self  – but we can pray for it!
• We can’t manufacture passion for Jesus – but we can pray for it!
• We can’t live the transformed life by our own efforts – but we can pray for it!
• We cannot worship out of our own strength – but we can pray for the  passionate love of God from which worship flows

And these are prayers that our Heavenly Father loves to answer because they are prayers that are according to His heart!

End to our own ‘fix-its’

First must come the end of self – an end to our own “fix its” and striving to change ourselves. Only then will the power of the Holy Spirit of God begin to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Humility vanishes when we spend our time trying to work out whether or not we’ve died to self  – whether or not we are humble enough – whether or not our humility is authentic or not.

Humility flourishes when we turn our eyes off self, to look upon, and delight in, Jesus. This focus on God, rather than on ourselves, will result in a kind of reflex displeasure toward the remnants of our old self-focus, with all its insidious manifestations. When we begin to experience this reflex displeasure, we know that  the power of the Holy Spirit is at work deep within –  doing in us what we could never do for ourselves.

 Blessed riddance

“While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves – blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do” (A.W. Tozer)

Humility is not thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less – because we’re too busy thinking about Jesus!

A prayer

I pray for the transformed life – the life that I cannot live in my own strength. I pray that I may die to self and be filled with an all-consuming, heart-felt passion for Jesus. “I pray that I may be rooted and established in God’s love for me and have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ for me. I pray that I might know this love that that is beyond human comprehension so that I may be filled with the fullness of God. Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that I ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work in me, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen
(based on Ephesians chapter 3:17-21)

In Christ Alone – Keith & Kristyn Getty, Alison Krauss
(with lyrics so you can sing along):-

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Delighting in God