Poor In Spirit

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3

To be poor in spirit is to have humility before God. Since everything we do and say is seen and heard by God we need to be aware of this and consider how we will react to the words being spoken against the believer, the actions being brought against the believer's faith in Jesus Christ. 

To be poor in spirit is have joy in our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a knowing of who He is, who He is in us and who we are in Him. It is joy in our salvation through Him. Why do we rejoice in such salvation? Salvation through Jesus Christ is necessary to not only reach God, but stay in God's eternal presence, in His heaven for all of eternity. 

When we die, our bodies are not just buried and that's it. Cremation may turn the body to ash and the winds may blow it to the four corners of the earth, but that's not the end either. A living person has three integral counterparts: the body, the soul and the spirit. 

The body is the physical part. The spirit is breath. The soul is our mind, our will, our emotions. The soul is the spiritual part of the body, the heart of the body that makes decisions and causes the body to go where the heart wills. 

When the body dies, the spirit, the breath, leaves the body. So does the soul. But where does the soul go? If you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, that He died on the cross and rose from the dead, and lived according to the Word of God on how a Christian (a follower of Jesus Christ) should live (precepts), then your soul is going to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

If, however, a person never believes that Jesus Christ is Lord, then that soul will go to hell. God clearly outlines what is required to enter into His kingdom and what happens when that requirement is not met. Hell is not one big party. If all of your friends are there, they don't want you there with them. It is a horrible, nasty, dry place without love, without relief. As a person lived in life, so that person will die in death: selfish and prideful. (see Luke 16:19-31)

What is the kingdom of heaven? A gift from God to those who believe that He sent His Son to Earth to take our punishment for sin by surrendering His will to His Father's will. (see John 3:16, 17; Luke 22:42) 

The kingdom of heaven is God's dwelling place, where God lives and abides. The believer is given the keys to the kingdom (Matthew 16:19). And lives according to kingdom rules (Matthew 7:21). 

But just remember: however you believe while you still draw breath determines the eternal destination of your soul. God does not send a person's soul to hell according to how 'bad' a person has been in this life, but how that person believed: God can see our hearts: our thoughts, our decisions. You cannot blame God for your actions. When He created us, He created us with the power to choose. We can choose life in Jesus Christ and be saved or we can choose not to believe and be condemned. 

I am a Christian. I choose to follow Jesus Christ and live according to godly precepts. I am a believer. 

Delighting In The Lord:Psalm 37

For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, And lift up your face to God. 
Job 22:26

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Psalm 37:4

“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words,
Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 58:13, 14

You know what these four verses have in common? 

      Which means "Pliable, soft, live in enjoyment of". While I understand the enjoyment part, I would not have connected pliable or soft with it. And, yet, God did say that when we surrendered our hearts to Him, he would remove the stony heart and replace it with a fleshy heart. In other words, our hardened sinful hearts would be replaced with a heart that is pliable, soft, more easily moldable, shapeable into what He desires our hearts to be.

     But just how do we get to the Delight part of this walk? Not all of what God wants to reveal to us in His Word is going to be revealed all at once. When I was reading Isaiah 58:13 the other night, the Holy Spirit opened it up to my understanding. 

• Turn away my foot from doing my pleasure on God's holy day. Don't go where I want to go, go where God wants me to go. Choose to walk where God wants me to walk. 
• Call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable. Whether we call the holy day of the Lord the sabbath or Sunday, we are to call it a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable. A pleasant day to be in God's presence. It is a day to honor God with our presence, fully surrendered and committed to doing what He wants us to do on His holy day; not what we used to do or feel pressured to do just because "everybody else is doing _____". Choose to spend the whole day with God.
• Honor Him, not doing what I/we want to do, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words. Whereas, once upon a Sunday, we looked forward to family time or sports time or however we would spend our Sundays, now that we belong to Him, our Sundays are not our Sundays: Sunday belongs to God. 

     Romans 12:1 tells us to surrender our bodies a living sacrifice. While it is talking about a surrendered life in Christ, it also concerns our lifestyles. No longer do we do, nor behave how we lived when we were sinners, but now we live according to the terms of our surrender to God. We chose Him as the Savior and Deliverer of our souls. Now we choose Him as Lord of our lives; we willingly sacrifice what our flesh wants to do and submit to what the Spirit of God wants us to do. And when we truly, honestly love the Lord our God, then we become quite willing to turn over every aspect of our lives, including how we spend our Sundays. 

     For me personally, this will include shutting off the television on Sundays. There is not a whole lot on the idiot box that honors God on any day of the week, much less Sunday. And I will taper off on computer time, as well. But that is what is changing in my home. How you choose to spend or change your Sunday/sabbath is between you and God. My hope is that as you open yourself up to God, He reveals Himself to you. And He will; His Word says so and God does not lie. “They that seek Me early shall find Me.”  Proverbs 8:17

     

The Poor In Spirit

Matthew 5:3
"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Who are the 'poor in spirit'? Let's go to Isaiah 57:15 and see.
"For thus says the high and lofty One  inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the spirit of the contrite ones." 
To be poor in spirit is to have a contrite and humble spirit; a repentant spirit, a spirit which acknowledges it's need for salvation and deliverance. 
A spirit which needs to be revived by the only One who can revive it: God. 
Psalm 34:18 "The Lord is near to them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit."
The Lord is near to the broken hearted, the ones who have heard the gospel and believed it, knowing immediately that they are sinners, that we are sinners. For the gospel reveals not only our need for a Savior, but Who our Savior is: Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who died for us. 
I'm one of those who are poor in spirit. And I have a Savior! 
Mine is the kingdom of heaven! I am blessed!