Daily Devotional

June 16

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

Look at Him, keep looking at Him .

... am I poor in spirit? How do I really feel about myself as I think of myself in terms of God, and in the presence of God? ... what are the things I am saying, what are the things I am praying about, what are the things I like to think of with regard to myself? What a poor thing it is, this boasting of the things that are accidental and for which I am not responsible, this boasting of things that are artificial and that will count as nothing at the great day when we stand in the presence of God. This poor self! That hymn of Lavater's puts it perfectly: "Make this poor self grow less and less," and "O Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me."

How does one therefore become "poor in spirit"?
The answer is that you do not look at yourself or begin by trying to do things to yourself. That was the whole error of monasticism. Those poor men ... said, "I must go out of society, I must scarify my flesh and suffer hardship, I must mutilate my body." No, no, the more you do that the more conscious will you be of yourself, and the less "poor in spirit'... look at God. Read this Book about Him, read His law, look at what He expects from us, contemplate standing before Him. It is also to look at the Lord Jesus Christ and to view Him as we see Him in the Gospels. The more we do that the more we shall understand the reaction of the apostles when, looking at Him and something He had just done, they said, "Lord, increase our faith.... We thought we had something because we had cast out devils and preached Thy word, but now we feel we have nothing; increase our faith." ... Look at Him, keep looking at Him. Look at the saints, look at the men who have been most filled with the Spirit and used. But above all, look again at Him.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, pp. 51-2

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”