Poor in spirit

We talked last night at family group about being poor in spirit and what does that mean? http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt%205:3;&version=31;Most of us have not experienced the position of being down and out or hitting rock bottom. We might know people and we might have watched people but it has never been us. Does that mean we cannot know what being poor in spirit really means? Can we not know who He really is if we don’t know how sinful we really are?

I have experienced days of tremendous emotion…. Crying out to God and to anyone else who would hear me. Some of those times were without a church family holding me up. Some of those times I hit an emotional bottom. Was I losing my house? Or my job? Did my child die? Or my parents or sister? None of those things. But life has a way of kicking us around and I believe the more we love the more we risk facing those times when we are wounded.

But those times of being wounded have taught me a lot about the Father who loves us perfectly. We mostly think of God in the sky overseeing all the little people of the earth and I actually think He is more like Father/Mother trying to love his children into doing the right things. Not so unlike me… He just takes care of more.

Also, knowing who we are is the key to being poor in spirit. We know that even though we “clean up real good”, we are still people who experience sinful thoughts popping into our heads at inopportune times, or wishing an easy way out of our minor difficulties, or telling those little lies to protect our image, or (fill in this blank with whatever your struggles are today….). I confess to you that who I am deep inside is definitely a work in progress and you would be shocked to know just how far I am from whatever standard you wish to use. Some days I hope the Lord is happy with my choices. Somedays I know He is not.

But it is the days that I know how far short I am from what I should be.. that I know how far I am from where He is. Being poor in spirit is the knowledge that I am nothing without the Christ who lives in my. My riches are many but it is His Spirit in me that makes me rich. DKU