Image: Christ in the House of Martha and Mary by Johannes Vermeer I love the Bible. I think the Bible rocks! I especially love it when you get arrested by a verse and something seems to jump up at you and sieze you, and totally mess you up forever. Well, it's happened again. I was casually reading Psalm 138 when verse 6 jumped up and grabbed me!:

Though the Lord is on high, yet He regards the lowly; But the proud He knows from afar.

Attracting God's gaze After pondering and chewing on this for a while, it started to dawn on me that the Lord will look upon the lowly - he will turn His attention and shift His focus towards the humble. Lowliness and humility attract the Lord's gaze - it is as if He has a homing device set to "humility" which arrests Him! The lowliness that I am talking about is not some false-humility, self-depreciating mortification of your flesh (Which is none other than a perverted form of pride). It is an attitude of heart that occurs when you find yourself cuddled up in Father God, and being lost in His vast embrace! The formula for promotion God is irresistibly attracted to lowliness - but the proud He tends to keep at a distance. In God's Kingdom, the only way up is down - you do not "grow up" you "grow down"! The only formula for growing in God is to go "lower still" and when you have done that, then you go lower still again.

And [Martha] had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word (Luke 10:39)

Communion with God In this story we see a real connection between lowliness and communion with Christ. Notice how Mary was not sitting beside Jesus, she was sitting at His feet - the place of going "lower still" - and this posture allowed her to "hear His word" or have communion with Jesus. As Bill Johnson says, "Martha, on the other hand, was fixing some sandwiches that Jesus had never asked for." There is a need in my life to simply sit at His feet..... and listen to His voice! All Christians have the capacity to hear the voice of Christ (John 10:27)but many are not listening to Him. My new year's resolution is to develop a lifestyle of listening to Jesus whilst going lower still. I believe God is actively seeking a few lowly ones today. Will you join me on this quest? Technorati Tags: lowerstill, bible, heidi baker, lowliness, humility, pride, promotion