...but God Ministry
  • Home
  • Good Morning: 30 Days in the Word
  • Good Month: Month Long Weekly Planners
  • Abide NT Reading Plan
  • Seamless Spring 2025
  • Luke Advent Study
  • Romans 8
  • Devo through the Bible
    • Jesus 365 Daily Devos
  • 1 Peter Study
  • Daily Bread Verse of the Day
  • Garden to Garden: Bible/Jesus 101
  • Year of Gratitude
  • 30-Day Scripture, Prayer & Gratitude Series
  • Come, Meet Jesus: John Study
  • Mahi Tournament
Purchase Jesus 365

157 of 365 - Poor in Spirit

6/6/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. Matthew 5:1
 
Jesus climbs up a mountain, sits down, and begins to teach what it really looks like to do life in the kingdom of Heaven. He begins, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” What in the world does He mean?
 
Financial situation has little to do with being poor in spirit. It is an utter emptiness without God. It is a crater that can only be filled with God’s grace, mercy, love, goodness. It is an absence of any sense of control or ability to fix anything on our own.

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. All of the goodness available when we are emptied of ourselves and open to receive heaven. In that emptiness, that crater, that absence, God comes in and fills it overflowing.

Here is the hard part: Only in the emptying can there be filling. My pastor says he often prays of our congregation, “bless them or break them…whatever brings them to you.” More often the breakings are what bring us places we would never otherwise go. Places where we see God’s face more clearly.

We can’t muster up being poor in spirit and we can’t obtain in by watching others. Yes, we are moved, but we are not emptied. We are still clinging, if only slightly, to a thread of control and trying to make it on our own. All of the counter-intuitive verses about joy in trial and suffering make more sense. Only then are we emptied. Poor in spirit.

The only response is worship in humility and deep gratitude. A realization that something was done to us, in us, for us that we could never do on our own. We truly experience the kingdom of heaven; the rich abundance of a holy God we are emptied of us and filled with Him.

Questions: Why do you think this was the first “blessed” statement by Jesus in this Sermon? How do you see this truth as being foundational to all others? 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    1 Corinthians
    1 John
    1 Kings
    1 Peter
    1 Samuel
    1 Thessalonians
    1 Timothy
    2 Corinthians
    2 Peter
    2 Samuel
    2 Timothy
    Acts
    Colossians
    Daniel
    Deuteronomy
    Ecclesiastes
    Ephesians
    Esther
    Exodus
    Galatians
    Genesis
    Habakkuk
    Hebrews
    Hosea
    Introduction
    Isaiah
    James
    Jeremiah
    Joel
    John
    Join Us
    Jonah
    Joshua
    Jude
    Judges
    Leviticus
    Luke
    Malachi
    Mark
    Matthew
    Micah
    Numbers
    Philemon
    Philippians
    Proverbs
    Psalm
    Ref: 12 Sons Of Jacob
    Ref: Divided Kingdom
    Ref: OT Timeline
    Ref: Timeline Of Judges
    Revelation
    Romans
    Ruth
    Titus

    Jesus 365 Home

    Archives

    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Devo + Journal Part 1: Old Testament
    Picture
    Devo + Journal Part 2: Gospels
    Picture
    Devo + Journal Part 3: Letters
  • Home
  • Good Morning: 30 Days in the Word
  • Good Month: Month Long Weekly Planners
  • Abide NT Reading Plan
  • Seamless Spring 2025
  • Luke Advent Study
  • Romans 8
  • Devo through the Bible
    • Jesus 365 Daily Devos
  • 1 Peter Study
  • Daily Bread Verse of the Day
  • Garden to Garden: Bible/Jesus 101
  • Year of Gratitude
  • 30-Day Scripture, Prayer & Gratitude Series
  • Come, Meet Jesus: John Study
  • Mahi Tournament