Well, here is the first foot out the door on my journey. I will start with Matthew 5 and the beatitudes. I just had a thought pop into my head about attitude. Years ago I was in the office of our Women's Ministry Director at the church I attended at the time. She had a poster on her wall that talked about how important your own attitude was. It makes me think of the beatitudes, and how like an attitude, it can change your life for the better. You are the one who controls if you live by the beatitudes or not. The cool thing is that with each beatitude there is a blessing.
I think most people would chose a blessing over a curse any day, I know I would. I want a wonderful blessed life. The thing is that God's idea of blessing and what I think in worldly terms of being blessed are not walking hand in hand. God's idea is on the flip side of popular thought. I think we all know it is much easier to go with the flow than to travel up stream. But the thing is that if you are willing to travel up stream, going the way of God, that is were you find the true riches and blessings.
So here is the first beatitude: Matthew 5:3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Hmmmmm........this doesn't naturally equate in modern day. I have been thinking about this one for a few days. I looked it up in a concordance and have thought it through too. This is how my thinking goes when I want to dig deeper to understand something....what is the opposite? What is the opposite of a poor spirit? A rich spirit. I think of having a rich spirit as having full confidence in yourself; you are all you need. I think as Americans we are taught that to be a self made man (or woman) is a badge of honor. To live up to your potential and be all that you can be are how we are bread around this great land. The problem I have with this way of thinking is that it has a foundation and center around self.
I want to take that thought above and now look at a poor spirit. A person with a poor spirit doesn't think he is worth nothing, but he knows he is nothing without God. The person with a poor spirit knows that there is a God, one true God, and that without him nothing would exist. The person with a poor spirit knows his relationship with God is found wanting and that his is separated from God because he has sinned and will sin again and can't live up to God's holy standard for him. He knows that there is nothing that he can do to fix his sin and make it go away on his own. A person who is poor of spirit must humble himself and seek what God will do to fix this situation of sin and separation. God will show this person that the answer that He has given to the problem of sin and separation from Himself is faith that Jesus Christ, that he took the punishment of every person's sin upon Him when he died on the cross. Faith that this is true is the bridge that fills the gap between what Christ has done to fulfill what God demands as payment for sin. A person with a poor spirit who realises that this is truth has thus entered into the Kingdom of heaven. To be in the Kingdom of heaven is to live from now through eternity as God as your King, the ruler of your life. Jesus thus becomes the Lord of your life, and you in your grateful state of being saved from separation from God, walk humbly following they way of Christ Jesus. This my friend is the greatest blessing that I could ever imagine!
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