Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 56.  I Am “Poor In Spirit” (letting go of self to seek after God)

Hello human.

As a child, living on main street of a Middle America town, I didn’t think about poverty. I didn’t know what I didn’t have. I always had food, school dresses, play clothes, a book, a school desk, a teacher, a roller skate key, a porch swing, and a nickel-a-pack SweeTARTS. I had enough.

The closest I can remember feeling impoverished was my first year in grad school. I was a single mother with two boys under the age of 4. I shared an apartment with a friend who was ok with living with one adult and two children. I was a graduate student teaching associate which meant I developed and taught the curriculum for 2-3 courses per quarter – freshman English, essay writing at sophomore level, and research writing to upperclassman. I was paid $600 per month to do this. Half of it, $300, went to daycare. $200 went to rent and utilities, so I had $100 for food, gas, and family needs for the entire month. A PELL grant paid my tuition. I was also a choreographer so I picked up extra money choreographing solo and dance team pieces on weekends.

For Christmas of that first year, I had $15 to celebrate Christmas with my boys. So, I headed to the Mall wondering what I could possibly find. When I took the escalator to the second floor of a local department store, I noticed a “drastically reduced” clearance table with kid stuff. I found a red sledding mat, the kind you just sit on and go. It was just big enough for my two hooligans. $5 bucks. And a game, though I can’t remember what game. $3.00. I had $7 left. I remembered I had a Little Caesar’s pizza coupon for one large pizza. $4 bucks. The remaining $3 bought one favorite “sweet treat” for each son.

On Christmas Day, we woke to so much snow. On campus there was a very big hill that everyone went to sled. So, we jumped into celebrating Christmas with three hours of sledding on a $5 ride, all the pepperoni pizza we could eat, and a sweet treat and game night to finish the day.

Ruddy cheeks and boyish grins disappearing into slumber was all I needed that year. A perfect Christmas.

I was kid-rich.

Jesus Came for the Spiritually Bankrupt

Our culture engages us in the value of money to dictate our conduct code—how we use it, share it, grow it, spend it, accumulate it, leverage it, elevate it. It’s all very, well, earthly.

As I ask God to strengthen my witness today, now is the time to invest prayer and thought to what Jesus meant when He talked about being “poor in spirit.”

Matthew 5:3

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,

    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus continues with what God will do for those who are mournful, meek, seekers of righteousness, pure of heart, peacemakers and those who are persecuted for righteousness. Matthew 5:4-10

What a powerful bundle of assurances for the person who embrace these attributes through God’s power. Such a noble character to aspire to.

But Jesus begins these beatitudes with spiritual poverty. With the spiritual realities that should be our spiritual currency for growth.

What Does It Mean To Be Spiritually Poor?

What does it mean to be spiritually poor?

For me, to be “poor in spirit” is to wake up seeking His presence, not mine.

To wake up and turn my back on arrogance, pride, and self-sufficiency.

To wake up and turn my back on the struggle.

What is my struggle?

Call it spiritual deception. Duplicity. I think I can be spiritual.

Call it spiritual deprivation. Scarcity. I need spirit-things.

Call it spiritual destitution. Hardship. I am suffering.

My path to being “poor in spirit” is a letting go.

1. Submission. To His Will.
2. Transcendence. Through the righteousness of His Son.
3. Transformation. Into His likeness.

Let the one who created me, define me.

It’s no mystery that submission is not a popular word in our culture. Unless it is submission to whatever persuades you out of a “love of self.”

And yet, faith is God’s divine persuasion of the heart. My heart. I am saying I submit to His persuasion daily.

The power of it is that Jesus speaks to the spiritual cavern in our soul.

This cavern echoes through our head like this:  “Something is missing, I never stay happy, something is always wrong, I can’t get ahead, I deserve what others have, why do bad things always happen to me, isn’t there more to life than this, I deserve more, I just need more of this, no one listens, life isn’t fair, I was just getting ahead, God is old-fashioned, I’ll do better, God isn’t hearing me, God is not the answer, I can do this on my own, I have my own truth, listen to me, listen to me, listen to me, you aren’t listening to me, why do I do that, why did I do that again, I know better, I thought I knew better, Adam and Eve is an old story, the world has moved on from God, I am a good person, I treat people well, I don’t do bad things, I care about others, I believe there is a God, good people go to heaven, there are many gods, there is no God, I am my own god, I didn’t know Adam and Eve, I did not bite the apple, I mean no harm, I am sure Jesus was a decent man, I am not weak, I try to be good…”

Jesus speaks, no, fills the impoverished spirit created within each of us when we face this, the human condition:

We must confess our sinfulness.

We cannot buy worthiness with good works.

We have nothing of spiritual worth to offer God.

Yet, we have a spiritual debt to pay.

And, we have no spiritual credit with which to buy our heavenly home.

We need a Savior.

Because Jesus has an eternal line of credit with His Heavenly Father.

And a heavenly home.

Although salvation happens once for all eternity when we accept Jesus, as humans, we seek this eternal state of mind daily: Because we are in a relationship with Jesus, and the worth of our life is in His nature, not ours. When I am “poor in spirit,” Jesus turns my gaze, He puts my face in His hands and turns it toward His Heavenly Father. He does that for me.

Who Does God Live With?

Isaiah 57:15

15 For this is what the high and exalted One says—

    he who lives forever, whose name is holy:

“I live in a high and holy place,

    but also, with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,

to revive the spirit of the lowly

    and to revive the heart of the contrite.

When we are “poor in spirit” God comes to us to revive our spirits and hearts. God’s Spirit fills our spiritual cavern. He comes to us to sustain our spiritual presence in His Kingdom. What a Father He is.

Who Does God Favor?

Isaiah 66:1-2

66 This is what the Lord says:

“Heaven is my throne,

    and the earth is my footstool.

Where is the house you will build for me?

    Where will my resting place be?

2 Has not my hand made all these things,

    and so, they came into being?”

declares the Lord.

“These are the ones I look on with favor:

    those who are humble and contrite in spirit,

    and who tremble at my word.             

 

God tells us who He favors: those with humility, contrite in spirit and who tremble at His word. On this BUOY, I affirm that I seek daily to be “contrite in spirit.” Biblically this means “penitent,” humbled by my own sins and failures, seeking after God.

Are you seeking to be “contrite in spirit,” human? On this BUOY, we share an amazing view of open water, of God’s potential in our lives, but we have to jump off and swim every day. I love this journey with you.

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