08/21/2023
The strongest people I know are those who are “poor in spirit”. This is a life that was not chosen for them, but one which they chose for themselves. Do you know such people? Are you one of them? Perhaps you are wondering what I mean by being poor in spirit. Well, the very first blessing that Jesus teaches us in the Beatitudes is that of being "poor in spirit" and He does this for a reason. These are the people that yield their individual spirits to the Spirit of God. They have laid down their own personal 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 way 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 product designed to cover a mistyped letter or word. If you made a mistake, and you didn’t use “white out” 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 again until we felt it was perfect... it was at this point that 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 our faith, we must destroy what contains our mistakes, and begin typing all over again. We can't just correct this word or that, but must present our faith as perfect as we can make it. Then God marks it up with corrections and we start all over again. It is a humbling experience and occurs over and over throughout our entire lives... each time we are 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, and have retyped the pages of their faith repeatedly. 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 happened to me in my spiritual life, I began to speak with a heavenly accent. I had been changed through numerous corrections until even the things that I had always done and said in a certain way were made different somehow... they had a new accent that redefined 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 heavenly accent or mannerism, 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 pencils in the correction of our lives, even though they are not completely perfect in their own… 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 daily for correction? Have you allowed the red marks you once bore to be destroyed, and are you retyping your declaration of faith so that it is now closer to perfection? Are you becoming more righteous, with the changes of Christ having replaced what was once marked in red? Is your life changed into one that old friends would see as not only a new accent, but an inspiring new life?
Prayer:
Father I thank you for the corrections you continuously make to my life. I thank you for the very accent with which I now speak, and the new flavor of my faith that you have given me... these are indicative of your presence in my life, and I rejoice in them. Holy Father, thank you for those things you ask me to tear down, reconstruct, and retype. Through this process of refinement I am coming closer to being perfected in Christ, and with each modification, no matter how small, my will is being supplanted with yours. In this way I am becoming more obedient to you, and more like your Son, Jesus. Lord I yield to you in all things and offer up my will and spirit for yours. With each correction I am giving up my own poor spirit so that I might become wealthy and strong in yours. My treasure is found in you Abba, and I find my worth reflected in your eyes and not my own. You are great, and your ultimate design for me is perfect. I praise you Father as you go over my life and change me to be more refined in righteousness, and as close to Jesus as I can possibly become. This is my greatest desire Lord... that I be yours, and become pleasing to you, just as you pronounced that Jesus was when He rose from the waters of baptism. Abba, Father, God, I praise be your name now, and forevermore as you draw me nearer to thee.
“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.””
Matthew 3:16-17 ESV
Rich Forbes