08/21/2017
The strongest people I know are poor in spirit. This life was not chosen for them, but they chose it for themselves. Do you know such people? Are you one of them? Perhaps you are wondering what I mean by this.
The very first blessing that Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes is that of the "poor in spirit" and He does this for a reason. These are the people that yield all they are to the Spirit of God. They have laid down their strength for the strength of God Himself.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:3 KJV
Oswald Chambers wrote about this in a wonderful statement that I will share with you. This is what he said...
"At the basis of Jesus Christ's Kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace. The thing I am blessed in is my poverty. If I know I have no strength of will, no nobility of disposition, then Jesus says - Blessed are you, because it is through this poverty that I enter His Kingdom. I cannot enter His Kingdom as a good man or woman, I can only enter it as a complete pauper." - Oswald Chambers
Giving up our physical possessions and treasure to follow Jesus can be incredibly difficult, but it can't hold a candle to laying down our own will and person in order to become totally impoverished.
When I was in school there was no such thing as word processing software, we typed our papers using a typewriter and most college professors would not accept the use of "white out" which was a solution designed to cover a mistyped letter or word. If you made a mistake you would have to retype the entire page. In other words, in order to correct it we had to destroy what we had already done and do it over until we felt it was perfect... it was at this point when the professor would take his red pen and begin his corrections.
Our lives of faith are much like the typewritten pages I produced while in school. In order to perfect my faith, I must destroy what I have started and begin all over again. I can't just correct this word or that, but must present it perfect. Then God marks it up with corrections and I start all over again. It is a humbling experience and occurs over and over for our entire lives... each time making our presentation more perfect , and more like what God would have written if He had done so in the first place. We are surrendering ourselves to Him, we are becoming poor in our own spirit and strong in His.
The people I find to be the strongest in my life are those who have been through many many corrections. When I look into their eyes I see the eyes of God looking back at me. When they speak I not only hear His words but hear His accent.
When people have lived in a foreign country for an extended period of time they not only begin to dress and talk differently, but they speak their native language with the accent of a foreigner. I first came to Nashville Tennessee in 1974, and moved here permanently in 1976. I had a Virginia accent when I spoke, but gradually that changed until on one visit back to Virginia one of my boyhood friends looked at me in astonishment as said "What in the world happened to your accent?!"
This same thing happens to me all the time in my life today, but in relation to my faith. I have changed through numerous corrections until even the things that I have always done are different in some way... they have a new accent that defines them. We commonly call this seeing Jesus in someone. It is what I see so profoundly in the eyes of those I feel are the strongest people I know. They are humble, they are often meek, they speak and act with a certain accent, and they are poor of spirit. The things of this world don't impress them and they look into you when you sit together in conversation... quite often they become God's red pencil in the correction of our lives, but even they are not perfect; just further down the road of correction. They have lived in God's foreign land longer than we have.
I love this final thought of Oswald Chambers; it goes like this...
"We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring." - Oswald Chambers
Are you giving yourself up for correction? Are you allowing the red marks you bear to destroy what you have typed upon your page only to begin once more with the changes of Christ incorporated? Is your life becoming one that old friends would see as inspiring?
Prayer:
Father I thank you for the corrections you make to my life. I thank you for the very accent with which I speak and the flavor of my faith that you impart... they are indicative of your presence in my life. Holy Father, thank you for those things you ask me to tear down and reconstruct; they come closer to your perfection with each modification, and my will is supplanted with your's each time I obey in their demolition. Lord I yield to you in all things and offer up my will and spirit for yours as I make my spirit poor so that I might become wealthy in you. My treasure is yours Father, and I find worth by your eyes and not my own. You are great and your design is perfect, I praise you Father as you go over my life and change me to be more as you would have me... because that is my greatest desire... that I be yours.
Rich Forbes