Poor in Spirit

Psalm 70

“Hasten, O God, to save me; come quickly, Lord, to help me.  May those who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.  May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” turn back because of their shame.  But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who long for your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!”

But as for me, I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; Lord, do not delay.”

Do you recall the early stages of your life, I sure do, for a while, I wanted to be a cowboy and fight off all the bad guys in the West?  Then around six years of age, I wanted to be a quarterback and always be the one who pulled the game out in the last few minutes to win the game.  I was always the hero, it was all about me, small problem, with both, I did not live in the West, I lived in Texas by the coast, and the only bad guys I knew were made up in my mind.  That takes care of being a cowboy and I needed a horse, not a stick, and a gun, not the wooden one I had made.

The next desire of being a quarterback was also not very realistic in that in the seventh grade the coach would not allow me even to try out for football, I did not meet the height or weight requirement.  I was all of 4’6’ and weighed 60 pounds, and I played tackle football at the park with many of the ones that now we're on the team with no uniform, no helmet, and no pads; I was crushed!

At no time in my life were my desires, or goals to become poor and needy, and I’m willing to bet the farm neither were yours.  In my early childhood, others may have thought of us as under-resourced, and I’m sure we were, but not poor and not needy, but we learned to work hard from an early age to have some spending money.  We never wanted a handout, nor dreamed that someday people would send out “go fund me” letters asking people they did not know to give them money, that would be begging, and we had too much pride to do that then or now.

Now, this is going to backfire in a way after coming into a relationship with Jesus Christ; we are not used to asking anyone, not even God to provide for our needs.  We are too proud to understand that all along even when we were getting our needs met outside of Christ, God was our source, our provider.  When we heard about poor and needy, God was not talking about us,  it must be someone in a foreign country.

Remember I told you it was going to backfire and as I looked to Scripture, I understood, I was poor and needy in my spirit, do you recall these words; “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)  Do you remember in Isaiah 66:2 the Lord speaking as Isaiah his prophet spoke these words; “Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being, declares the LORD. This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.”

So I confessed to the Father, I was a proud and arrogant man, who needed forgiveness, and I now agree with King David, I am poor and needy, but my Father loves me and will meet my every need, and sometimes my wants.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice