...for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
This Mozambican girl in the photo will almost positively never have the things that are listed on her shirt as her 'favourite' things: new shoes, text messaging, jewelry, MP3 players...
It's the very first thing Jesus said in his most famous sermon. And honestly, I haven't really known what it means to be poor in spirit until it happened to me. I had a lot of speculation, and I guess I sort of got it, but man... When it really happens to you, you feel it. It's funny how things all of a sudden become truth when you experience them. That's what I love about the Lord. He's forced me to understand that He is real because I've experienced Him.
But back to being poor in spirit:
It popped up in a devotional I read today and really stuck to the walls of my heart because I've been praying through and hearing from the Lord about being empty. Emptiness is always going to precede me knowing God more, seeing Him at all. Every time I exist in a moment, I'm clouding my view of the Kingdom and the very face of God. And I've seen too much of His Face to make the foolish move of allowing things to blur that view. I think I'd be fine if I were blind. The eyes on my face get in the way a lot when my heart's eyes should be the ones that are seeing the Lord.
But back to being poor in spirit:
Jesus did not come to Earth to teach us. He came to make us into what He has taught us to be.* We don't even get to boast over our obedience. It is the Lord in us having His way with us, transforming us. So before we get to feeling good about ourselves because we helped at a soup kitchen or read our Bibles or prayed, lets remember that the Lord did that. He allowed us to be a part of Heaven coming to Earth and worked through us to make that happen. Everything we do to advance the Kingdom has been done despite us.
But back to being poor in spirit:
It means emptiness. Rid of ourselves. Poured out. Dead.
The very foundation of the Kingdom is poverty. As long as we are thinking well of ourselves and going out and existing in our daily lives, we are missing the Kingdom. We are not taking ground in the Kingdom. We are losing it. But when we allow allll those crappy parts of our lives- the bills that can't seem to get paid, the 'accidental' injuries, the breakups, the loneliness, the suffering- to break us of our selves trying to live our lives and realize what they really are there for: God has blessed you with them. He's given you the opportunity to be poor in spirit. To see the way He can move His Kingdom in your life.
If you're reading this, I'm praying that you come up with no solutions to your problems. I don't wish for you to pull through on the next car payment, to find a friend to pacify your isolation. I pray for the Lord to be only thing that you have. Then, when He blows your mind with His perfect Provision, don't thank me. I didn't write this. Well, I pray that this was not of me. I pray that anything said here that was of me to be forgotten as soon as you get off the internet.
1 comment:
This spoke to me in soo many ways. I wrote a lil about it in my blog. It is all God speaking through you. No doubt.
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