Spare Change

The Beatitudes: The Barometer of Spiritual Poverty

Posted by Bryan

The Beatitudes: Introduction
The Beatitudes: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
The Beatitudes: The Barrier to Spiritual Poverty

The Bible says that every action in life will be tested by fire. It also says that you will have to give an account for every attitude you have had and for every idle word that falls out of your face. Every aspect of your life is subject to a certain review before God. Now is as good a time as any for a spiritual check-up, so the light of the Holy Spirit might reveal pride in all its hiding spaces:

• Love. Is yours sacrificial or self-seeking? Is it unconditional or manipulative? Is it continual or situational?
• Worship. Do you worship because of what you receive or for what you offer? Do you do it because you cannot miss it or because you are afraid that God is keeping attendance? Do you come to meet friends and family or to encounter God?
• Serving. Do you serve because you like to be in charge or because you just want to be used? Do you want an important title or do you want to meet a need? Do you do it because if you don't do it, it won't get done or because God has placed an undeniable call upon you to do it?
• Giving. Do you give because the church needs you to do it or because you need to do it? Do you give to obey 'the law' or to reflect the grace of God? Do you tithe because you have accrued much wealth or because you've been given so much of God's unending wealth?

Are you beginning to get a reading of your barometer on spiritual poverty? God contributes everything to your spiritual existence and you contribute nothing! You are nothing more and nothing less than the person God made you to be! When you live as how He made you to be, He should get all the credit for it. When you live outside of who He created you to be, you will not accomplish anything that He will find pleasing. When you live day by day, hour by hour, breath by breath, in that reality, the better off you will be because only then will you live in a condition of spiritual poverty.