HUMBLE HEARTS - 1

Blessed are the poor in spirit ....

Matthew 5:3

What does it mean to be "poor in spirit"?

Does it mean that you have a poor self-image ... little or no self-esteem? NO. God created you in His image. He gave His only Son to redeem you. He has placed His Holy Spirit within you. You are LOVED by Him. You are important to Him. You are worth something because of that. God doesn't want you living your life feeling worthless and unimportant. He created you to be happy. That's what the word "blessed" in all the Beatitudes means = HAPPY.

Don't all of us want to be happy? Sure we do. It's a God-given longing of our hearts. Your desire to be happy was placed in you by Creator God. The truth is - God gave you that desire so HE could fill it. HE is our source of happiness. Yet, so many of us try to fill that need and look for our happiness in other places besides God.

Does "poor in spirit" mean that we should all be quiet, shy, and retiring by nature? NO. God created us with different temperaments and personalities. Just because a person may be a quiet, "behind the scenes" kind of person doesn't necessarily mean they are "poor in spirit." You can be the most shy, introverted person around and still be full of pride.

Does being "poor in spirit" mean that we deny about ourselves what everyone else knows is true? NO. That's false humility! In a way, Moses was guilty of this when he told God he was not able to speak (Ex. 4:10-17). God will empower us to do what He calls us to do. Denying that we can do what God calls us to do is not humility - it's the worst kind of pride!

So - if none of these things are what being "poor in spirit" means, what DOES it mean?

Being "poor in spirit" means KNOWING yourself, ACCEPTING yourself, and BEING yourself to the glory of God.

KNOWING ourselves is a lifelong process and sometimes, frankly, it's painful - but it's a part of maturing. God wants us to know and understand

• our strengths and weaknesses
• our hidden desires
• our spiritual gifts
• our natural abilities

Only when we are honest with ourselves in these areas can we allow Him to work IN and THROUGH us.

ACCEPTING ourselves is important if we are going to accept God's plan for working through our strengths - or our weaknesses - for He can (and does) use both. Some of us have difficulty accepting the "ME" we are and look at others and try to be "them." God created you uniquely YOU. And He has a plan and a purpose for YOU.

Accepting ourselves is simply taking those things we know about ourselves - our strenths, weaknesses, hidden desires, spiritual gifts, and natural abilities - and saying "Okay, this is ME. This is how God created me. Now I'm going to be the best ME I can be for the glory of God."

And, that's our final point - BEING the best YOU to the glory of God. You got that last phrase, didn't you? To the glory of God. That's where a lot of us get hung up. We try to be the person we are to the "praise of man." We worry all the time about what others are going to think of us. That's not being "poor in spirit." That's being chock full of pride!

Being yourself involves yielding to the Spirit of God and permitting Him to fulfill God's will in your life. You are not imitating somebody else or envying somebody else. You are yourself - uniquely created by God - and empowered by His Spirit to do what God calls YOU to do.

Being poor in spirit means I KNOW myself well enough to know that in myself I am bankrupt, but in Christ I am rich. It means that I ACCEPT myself and discover the place God wants ME to fill no matter how insignificant or unimportant I may believe it is. Being poor in spirit means I understand that EVERY place of God's choosing is an important place (1 Cor. 12:21 - The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you.")

Being poor in spirit means that I do not deny the genuineness of my own personality, gifts or talents but I humbly yield them to God for Him to make them all HE wants them to be.

God is calling us to have humble hearts before Him.

Tomorrow we'll talk about four characteristics that are evident in the life of a woman who is "poor in spirit."