The Answer: Poor in Spirit, book excerpt

The Answer

But then Paul gives us the answer: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25) We are not struggling alone, and cannot struggle alone. Yes, our job is to “struggle”, to stand against these propensities, but maybe our job is also to “accept” our inabilities: to be “poor in spirit”.  And Jesus stands with us through it. Sometimes He delivers us out of the difficulty, but just as often He stands with us as we go right through the middle of it.

This beatitude deals with giving up. It’s the picture of a beggar reaching out his hands for help. The difference in making this beatitude work is not do we give up but how we give up. There is the wrong way, leading to more dysfunctional behavior such as working harder, alcohol, drugs, or just shifting focus to a different but just as addictive activity. This ultimately is just another illusion of a meaningful lifestyle that keeps you going until you once again feel that hollowness deep within.

Then there is the right way: giving ourselves over to that Something, that Someone, that is greater than life itself. Connecting with this One enters into a continuously deepening relationship of what I am as a human being rather than trying to find meaning in your human doing. This is not only true theologically, it is also true psychologically.

“For theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” so the verse ends. There are riches, emotionally, relationally, spiritually that lie within. But it is from the position of the beggar that the gate to these riches is opened. Enter through that gate to the deeper, richer, more fulfilling life.

“For theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

Back to Matthew 5:3 [rephrase]

  Because they are beggars, they reach out to God

    To be the center of their life; [God-Jesus is my life]

    The source of their strength [God-Jesus is my life supply, my energy, my energy field, my energy source]

“For theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

For theirs are the “treasures” of Heaven---God and all he/it contains.

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3

We have finally come to the end of “me” so we have no choice but to throw ourselves at and grasp around the knees of “Him”. There is nothing else to do; nowhere else to go. We can finally truly plead: “Our Father, who art in Heaven.” (Matthew 6:9) It is a beginning, a relationship, a deeper recognition. The gates of God’s kingdom are thrown open wide, showing us all the treasures it contains.

34 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35 So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:

“I will open my mouth in parables,
    I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”[a]

Matthew 13:34,35

We are in a position to see the “things hidden since the creation of the world.” We are at his feet seeing into heaven. Seeing the treasures in a greater richness, a deeper life. We have lost enough of ourselves that deep within a door opens---from the other side----inviting us to come in. Beyond the gates of the current reality lies the deeper life----Do you want it?

“My sacrifice, O God, is[a] a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart
    you, God, will not despise.” Psalms 51:17