Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
– Matthew 5:3
– Matthew 5:3
“Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?”
– James 2:5
I wish I could express to you the millions of things I have been learning from the lives of the poor living in the Smoky Mountain Dump in Manila. I am seeing the Word of God come alive in Matthew 5 and James 2:5. As I have been asking God what it means to be poor in spirit, He has shown me it is more a matter of the heart than anything else, although a lack of worldly possessions makes it much easier. Being poor in spirit is marked by desperation for the Lord, a clear knowledge of one’s need for Him, and dependency on Him. This is why it is so hard for the materially rich to be poor in spirit – it is harder for the rich to see their need for Him.
Do you want the Kingdom? Then you better become poor in spirit! The King will only trust us with His riches when He sees our dependency on Him. He is ripping away everything I have been dependent on so I have to depend on Him and I am thankful. These people I have been “ministering” to are rich in faith and challenge my faith daily. I receive from them more than I give. Every day since we have been in The Philippines I have asked the Lord to give me more faith than the day before, and every day He has. Sometimes it is a little, and sometimes it is a lot, but He is doing it. I trust Jesus, but I need to trust Him more. I have faith in Jesus, but I need to have faith for more! My faith is small in comparison to the big God that He is. What reason do I have to doubt? My friends in the dump do not have a choice to doubt. They have to trust Jesus, or their needs are not met; but as they trust Him He supplies all their needs and more.
I am learning how upside-down the Kingdom is. I can see that these people are inheriting the Kingdom and the beautiful things God blesses them with and saves for them. As I spoke to the skills training class I told them that they are sons and daughters of the King, and that as a Father the King wants to lavish His riches on them. The rich in faith know they are inheriting it because they trust in what their eyes do not see. I have great respect for the giants in faith among them, and some of these giants in faith are little children. Jesus is going to use some of these children to shake the world, and it is their simplicity that gives them the wisdom to do it. They are wise, but they do not know how much they know. Often, they do not even know what they know. They cannot put into words their theology and have little words to describe who the Lord is, but they know Him and the Lord blesses them in unique ways because of their desperate hearts for Him.
And there you have it – my greatest lessons from the month have come from the poor and the children. Children trust until they are taught not to. Why do you think Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:3 that unless we change and become like little children we will never enter the kingdom of heaven? The key is their unwavering simple faith in Jesus. My prayer is that I would trust God the way a little orphan trusts me as she lays her head on my chest when she meets me for the first time. The Lord deserves to be trusted this way. He has a perfect track record. I don’t even have a good one, and she doesn’t ask for it. There will be more to come on this as soon as I get a chance to gather more of my thoughts.
My challenge to you: Observe the poor and children. Better yet, sit with them. I don’t care how, just find ways to be around them. They have lessons we need to learn, and riches we don’t understand.
