God's Long-range Plans

Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation.” Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: “I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.” The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” Daniel answered the king and said, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind. (Daniel 2:24–30)

The king wanted his dream interpreted, but he refused to tell his wise men what the dream was so he told one of his men to kill all of them. Daniel intervened. God gave him the content and the meaning, thus saving the wise men from death. Did he know what the descendants of these men would do? Not likely. But God did.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1–2)

Most theologians believe these wise men were descendants of those that lived in Babylon many centuries prior to the birth of Christ and it was very likely that Daniel told them that a Jewish messiah would come and the sign would be a star that would take them to His birthplace. Knowing the power and plan of God from this side of those events, it is easy to agree. That ancient group had to live on and be told, therefore God revealed the meaning of the king’s dream and kept them alive.

When unusual events happen, realizing God has an agenda for good helps me agree with this understanding. As my mother often said, “We must need it or we would not be getting it.” This applies to ‘good’ events as well as those that alarm us or make us shake our heads in wonder. He has a plan that we do not know about.

For instance, my hubby ‘lost’ something valuable, but after nearly two years of wondering what happened, he found it again because his luggage got left in a faraway airport and forced him to fully examine it to make certain nothing had been removed. He then found his missing items. I thought later how upset travelers get when their luggage goes missing, but as my mom said…! And God says:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

Those “all things” may not feel good, but sometimes God is showing us the wonder of His grace with surprises that reveal His goodness, and it is gazing into His glory that changes our lives. 

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Spending time with Jesus in His Word is one way. Talking with Him all day long is another. Seeing Him in the lives of Spirit-filled believers is another. We may not see Him as we look in the mirror unless that helps us confess our shortfall, but it is His amazing goal that we be like Him.

Jesus, there are times that You are so real and visible, and times where I feel abandoned, yet all the time You are active and working in my life, even in my dreams. For that, I am grateful. And I love Your surprises!

Simple Instructions for Today

Normally a devotional reading suits my desire or need of the day. I just want to think about it, do what it says, even copy/paste it here. This day’s thought comes from a devotional guide by Baker Publishing called “Quiet Reflections of Hope: 120 Devotions to Start Your Day.” It begins with this verse:

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

The author’s idea is illustrated by smiling. When someone smiles at you, you can’t help smiling back. I’ve often noticed that if I smile at a stranger, they usually smile back too. The devotional writer calls that the ripple effect. This image is used for other things, but in this case it is like the action that happens when a small object is tossed into a pond and starts a small ripple that spreads over the whole surface. In other words, a small action can have a large result.

In beholding God's glory, I’m told that I will reflect it, starting small but one small act of kindness can create a larger response, like the ripples in a pond. Here, faith comes in.
Small acts can be like the boy offering his five loaves and two fish. I can imagine his open-mouth amazement at what Jesus did with that small donation. For me, it could be a small financial offering, but it also could be a smile for a gloomy person. 

One day I shopped at a dollar store where they had talking machines to take payment for purchases. But they also had one real person at a till. I went to the person and told her I would rather listen to her than those machines. She burst into a grin and said, “Thank you. That’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me all week.” Ripples? It may not take much to bless others!

Faith trusts those tiny impulses to act, sometimes in very small ways. Trusting those impulses is about trusting God. It involves listening as the Spirit is waiting for a chance to inspire me. I need to hear the subtle whispers by being still, quiet and receptive. If I talk too much I could miss it. If I’m hesitant or unsure and doubt the value of those subtle ideas, or even think “this is silly” then I might miss the chance to show His glory to someone else, even to change their attitude or make a difference in their life.

The devotional writer asks to compare the ways of Jesus to show kindness to others. I don’t need to know ahead of time or even see the results. I simple need to trust that quiet voice that offers an idea, realizing it will likely be not only a small thing, but spontaneous. While it could inspire another person or maybe even more than the person who first receives it, I don’t need to have an advance clue of such a result. I just need to obey. 

PRAY: Lord, help me pay attention to You today. Nudge me to act, even if the action seems small or unimportant. You do promise that I can reflect Your glory, so help me to do what You know will be a blessing to others, even if it seems like a small thing or a nothing to me.

Anchored even in the ups and downs…

This day scrambled my thoughts. Family members arrive back from a holiday not knowing if recent storms and flash floods damaged their home. Last month fires threatened many areas. This time it is floods. Where I live, the weather changes so much that making outdoor plans is tentative at best.

As I read about the areas that were hit with extreme weather, another family member called to let us know her sister’s hubby had another stroke. Life changes in a moment.

In the larger world, a big nation attacks a small country again, this time the most severe effort in this ongoing battle. To the south, leadership decisions flip and flop and who knows what will happen next. 

But then there is God who managed to make my ‘verse for the day” be truly a verse for today:
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed."  (Malachi 3:6)

Life is up/down, black/white, sane/crazy, normal/abnormal, but God remains the same. I did a word search in the NT for “same” and found these comforts…

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. . . . But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7; 24–25)

This God who is the same can take diversity in His people and composes everyone into a body that has the same goals and works in the same power. His Holy Spirit is our sameness, even as we are gifted differently and are not the same in other ways. Only God. 

His goal is that we become like Him, transformed into the same image as we gaze upon His glory:

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Spending time with others who love Jesus, He encourages us when we share the same ideas and same goals. These are also from the One who never changes…

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. (Philippians 2:1–2)

Not only does our God remain the same, He encourages His people to be like Him in the way we related to one another. These truths are like an anchor, a shelter, a fortress even, in a world where change happens so rapidly that it makes me dizzy.

And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” (Hebrews 1:10–12)

PRAY: In a day when I feel more scattered than usual, You give me a stable word for how I can think and act based on You, the One who is never scattered or fragmented by what You see in this messy place. You tell me: “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:6) and for that, I am settled and calmed. Take my hand and keep me moving forward in knowing You are not like the world and You are definitely not the author of confusion but of peace  (1 Corinthians 14:33). Thank You for being my stability and peace.

Why did God allow sin?

 
Today’s reading from Charnock’s book is so profound that I’m tempted to copy/paste most of it instead of putting it in my own words. In writing about the wisdom of God, this author answers the question I’ve often been asked: Why did God allow Adam and Eve to sin? It ruined everything.

Charnock agrees that sin is “altogether black and abominable” but quickly adds that in His wisdom God allowed it that we might see His mercy and grace displayed in the incarnation and death of his Son for the atonement of sin.

With goosebumps, I stop there and say, “Of course. Without sin we would not see the mercy and power of God. We would only have a small view of His glory and miss His incredible love and power shown in what He did about our sin…

So that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21)

He permitted Adam’s fall so we could have a fuller discovery of His nature and unbounded goodness. It would not have otherwise appeared. His goodness in rewarding innocent obedience would have been manifested; but not his mercy. Without sin and its production of misery, God’s mercy in sending his Son to save his enemies, could not have appeared.
Nor would we know the power of God in the changing of hard hearts nor His vindictive justice that reveals His wrath against sin. We would not experience imputed righteousness and the glory of knowing it through faith in Christ:

For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face. (Psalm 11:7)
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Without sin, this perfection, whereby God draws good out of evil, would have no reason to happen and been utterly useless.

Instead, sin became an occasion of God glorifying himself as He used it to communicate the knowledge of all these perfections of His nature, which otherwise would not be seen. His justice would have nothing to punish, His mercy obscure, and a great part of His wisdom would remain silent without the presence of sin to order and even use for His purposes.

The OT example is Joseph. God permitted the sin of Joseph’s brethren, that he might use their evil to a good end. Because of his holiness, God never wills sin as an end; but in regard of His great wisdom He wills to permit it as a means and occasion to draw good out of those things which are in their own nature most contrary to good.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50:20)

The NT example is like it, but with implications for far more than one family. This was for all of humanity:

This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. (Acts 2:23)

The devil inspired men to kill Jesus yet God ordered it to accomplish His own design of redemption in the death of the His Son. The devil had diabolical ends, and God overpowers his actions to serve His own divine ends. Divine wisdom uses sin to accomplish His will.

PRAY: Because my sin did this to You, Jesus, I abhor sin, even though it still draws me out of fellowship with You. Yet because of God’s wisdom, mercy, and grace, You continually draw me back to Yourself, using everything for good in my life. You are utterly amazing to use the sin that I hate as a means whereby I am able to know Your great love and grace.

Seeing Jesus – Seeing what needs to change

 

This vacation and observations of my attitude while away from home show the importance of understanding what is coming from the Holy Spirit and what is a demand of the flesh. If I use the lists of sinful attitudes in Scripture, I can easily make excuses for selfish behavior. Most of them a horrid things that I’d never do.

This reminds me of the five-year-old in a discussion of sin. She said, “But I’ve never murdered anyone” and to her thinking, she was not a sinner. If we rate sin that way, excuses come easily.

One clue to the subtlety of sin is in the words of the OT prophet: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) This describes sin as turning to my own way rather than living in God’s way. This means if something looks good, even though it is selfishly motivated and for my own glory, it can be justified or excused. I could think that only the really bad actions are sin.

Yesterday I felt like leaving this place and going home to my Christian friends who sin at times but it is not their lifestyle. But the Lord reminded me that He did not do that. He came to this sin-soaked planet to save the lost. I’m in this place to be like Jesus and not do my own thing – including running away from what is difficult or unpleasant.
However, it is not just knowing myself and my sinfulness. This is only discovered by knowing what the Lord Jesus Christ is like and willingly let His Spirit make a comparison to show me His intentions and His goal for me.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:1–3)

God is my Father and I am His child – an infant really. When I ‘grow up’ I will be like His Son, perfected when I see Him, but in process while here and while God uses all things to work in me that likeness. I’m to see Jesus as clearly as I can, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit who reveals Him to me...

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

It is in beholding Jesus that I see what I am not, but also how He changes me. Instead of wanting to run to my comfort zone yesterday, He showed me Himself and it became easier to “eat and drink” with those who don’t know Him. This is why I am here.

PRAY: Jesus, Your Word and Your people give me a vision of what I am not, and what I need to confess so You can forgive and cleanse me (1 John 1:9). I know I bear “the image of the man of dust” but will “also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:49) and am thankful to be alert to both the old that needs to be changed, and the new that is my destiny – all because of Your incredible grace!

How to be transformed...

 

Yesterday was filled with emotions. Unexpected help came regarding family reunion plans that thrilled me. Not only new ideas to help people enjoy one another, but a great deal of thoughtful and encouraging motivation expressed with it. Then our team nearly won a soccer match only to have it tied in the last minutes and lost in a shoot-out. And after that, a different kind of shooting with an attempt to assassinate the former US president. Then I had a long dream in which a false teacher, filled with nonsense ideas about the way people think, led two church services filled with thousands of people who thought she was wonderful. I woke up distressed at this depiction of the way our world is going. My emotions threatened to take my focus off Jesus.

Today’s devotional reading echoed some of the low points of the previous twenty-four hours. It speaks of self-centeredness saying again that the great sin that plagues us is our focus on me, myself, and I. To be calmer, more level, I needed to focus on Jesus, not think about me.

However, the Bible does say to examine ourselves. Like emotions, this can also get out of hand. Too much looking at me is not good either. Those emotions did that while biblical self-examination should be motivated by a desire to find and root out sin. Yet today’s reading warned that too much of it, or having a me-focus can lead to making excuses, feeling sorry for me, comparing myself to others less fortunate, or even pride that I am better than so-and-so.

(Jesus) also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9–14)

Even reading this story and thinking I am humble can turn into pride that thinks, “At least I am not like that self-righteous Pharisee.” While emotions can put my focus on me, so can pride. I’m supposed to view life in humility.

Not easy. Rare is the truly humble person. Today’s devotional offers this spiritual discipline to push out those sneaky personal pronouns: “The commands to look to Jesus, to behold His glory, to have our eyes ever toward Him, are literal. When we are looking to Jesus, we cannot see ourselves, for if our faces are to Him, our backs will necessarily be to one another.” The Bible says:

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Looking at Jesus not only takes my eyes off myself, my emotions, and my performance, but as this verse says, it is a transforming process. We are affected by what captures our attention. For instance, our family spent a couple years in a southern state around people with a drawl that produced a ‘you all’ accent in our children. What is fed into our minds does have an effect  on our lives. No wonder Jesus said,

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:48–51)

He was illustrating the importance of relying on Him as sustenance for life. Relying on me only leads to more hunger and even starvation. Focus on Jesus feeds me well.

PRAY: Lord Jesus, looking at You instead of at myself changes my days and my dreams. Your will and responses affect me, even bring great joy at the good ideas of others instead of envy, and glad for fair play instead of being a sore loser fan, also upset at violence instead of thinking a victim gets what they deserve (as some do), and make me upset with false teaching and the harm it does rather than dismissing a dream as only a dream. Keep my eyes and thoughts on You. Only You can transform my selfishness into clear thinking — and help me with humility.

When prayers are not answered…

The promise of God is that His people are “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3) and that as “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

This is evidence of the Spirit-filled life. In that place where Jesus reigns, sin cannot, but if I have unconfessed sin that I know about and have not taken it to the Cross, God can bestow no other blessings, no matter how much I desire them and fervently pray for them. Today, I’m thinking about the need for purity in my life takes priority over God answering all my prayers. As one writer says, the temple must first be made pure before the King will come in to reign there!

For example, when severe famine hit and God’s people suffered, He sent Joseph into Egypt — sold as a slave, suffering all the way and “the word of God tested his faith” until the ruler who had food “set him free and made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom.” (Psalm 105:17–22)

It was not the prison life with its hard beds or poor food that tried him, but it was the word God had spoken into his heart in the early years concerning his future that was always on his mind. It must have seemed totally impossible at times but after this man grew through the testing, then he was fit for the the task of dealing with his wayward brethren, with the love and patience of the Lord.

I will not experience what Joseph did, but as I pray for what God promises to do, for myself and for those that I pray for, and yet the days go on and He does not do it, that is truly hard. Yet I see that this is a discipline of faith for me also. It brings me into a knowledge of God which would otherwise be impossible.

What does this look like? Oswald Chambers describes it with spiritual disciplines, calling them habits. He warns that as I become more virtuous, patient, even godly, these are only stages and if I stop there, I can easily strut as if I’ve arrived. What God wants is that those disciplines be practiced so they are not conscious habits at all, because they are lost in the life of Christ.

In other words, God wants spiritual discipline to be such a part of me that I do the right things without even thinking about it. Yet I could make a god out of my little Christian habits, and if that happens, the Lord will upset the habit to show me what I’ve done.

Yesterday, before sitting to devotions, an interruption came and it upset me — I wanted to be reading the Bible and praying when God wanted me to be eager to help. Had I made a god of my spiritual disciplines? Likely.

Chambers says love means invisible habits. That is, unconsciously doing whatever God puts before me in grace and being ‘at home’ with it, not upset because an interruption messed with the practice of ‘my’ habit. Jesus is my example. No matter what came along, He was at home with God and not disrupted by anything.

This partly answers why God focuses more on my shortfall than on answering all my prayers. I am not yet ready to live with the answers because I realize how many demands they could make on the current habits of my life. 

PRAY: Jesus, this is huge. I knew that any interruption to my plans needs to be met with grace and godliness, but not only did my frustration miss that, it also missed the point Chambers makes, that I can put even my spiritual disciplines ahead of what You are calling me to do, making them my god rather than You. Thank You for this conviction and I do confess the root of how I reacted. Forgive me for thinking a virtuous habit is more important than hearing You in the midst of even that. Help me be a better listener, doing it because that is who I am.

God’s Part Needed

 

Our part is to trust, and God’s part is to work. His work is to deliver us from the power of sin and make us perfect in every good work to do His will. How does He do that? Like a SciFi movie where I just sit here and He zaps me? No, not like that, yet partly:

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

This means being before Him, hiding nothing and gazing into His glory. When I see Jesus with the eyes of faith and withholding nothing, His Spirit changes me. This is His indescribable saving power.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

This also means being before Him, yet in a different way. It is reading His Word and as I do, it changes the way I think. It shows me my sin and as I confess it…

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

And with forgiveness and cleansing, my old way of thinking moves out allowing God’s way of thinking to move in, to change me, for it is how a person thinks that determines their personality and actions.

Can I transform myself? Rhetorical question. Of course not. How many times do I set myself with a resolution to start a new habit, or quit doing something that annoys even me, never mind those around me? How many times do I want to be more like Jesus only to find my motivations are self-centered and not at all like His? Of course I cannot do it myself. This is why I need Jesus.

By experience and by the words of God, I’m totally convinced that becoming like Him, being transformed into a Christlike person, is not possible without Christ who has come into my life to do just that, and will do it for all who put themselves totally in His hands and trust Him without reserve.

Obviously the part of a believer is trust and Jesus does the work entrusted to Him, yet even trust is beyond my ability…

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

Faith is a gift. It is in my heart, in Christ who lives there, but the world’s skepticism and the devil’s lies, and the old nature with its desire to rule so often gang up on faith and pound it into the ground, leaving me without its focus or its power.
Reviving faith? It comes again by hearing about Jesus, reading about Him, being with other Christians who talk about His goodness, and running to Him with confession when my heart is not right.

PRAY: Lord, these days are filled with details for which I am responsible and that take so much time, added to concerns for my husband whose injury has no cure but time and may never heal, and yet to list them puts my focus on the problems. In order for the joy of the Lord to be my strength (Nehemiah 8:10), that focus needs to be on You. Yet the way my scattered mind works, I’m feeling much stress trying to deal with doing that and also taking care of the needs before me. You are my Savior and Lord — I put all of this in Your hands and ask You to sort it out and save me from all that threatens that faith and the indescribable inner joy that You have given me.

Poor in spirit means . . .

Some Christians use the term ‘head knowledge’ to describe knowing truth, but not doing it as opposed to ‘heart knowledge’ where that truth becomes part of how we live. I’m realizing that ‘head knowledge’ is a form of deception and even disobedience. In my experience, knowing a truth and even teaching it to others but not doing it myself is hypocrisy. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for that attitude and the Holy Spirit convicts me that just knowing is not enough.

We usually learn by degrees. When I became a Christian, there was a sense of being poor in spirit, otherwise salvation would not have happened. God saved me when I was lost and needy and knew it. However, many years of learning what the Bible says, I was still doing many things in my own strength and confidence, not fully understanding what Jesus meant when He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

The world teaches a successful life based on self-confidence, but Jesus says we do not see or enter His kingdom that way. Even if we enter His way because we know we are unable to do so otherwise, there is that fleshy, worldly, human and sinful idea that ‘I can do this myself’ distracting us from the spiritual poverty Jesus talked about.

Today’s devotional lists several ways to determine true poverty of spirit. I would start that list by saying it is not merely knowing truth. Instead, it is being weak, being contrite, knowing how unable I am and realizing this is the way Jesus wants me to be, utterly helpless and dependent, like a child.

The rest of the list comes from Thomas Watson’s book The Beatitudes. Each one clearly talks about human experience, not what I know but about the kind of person Jesus wants me to be.

Weaned from self, with a focus on glorifying God and ministering to others. Psalm 131:2 speaks of a weaned child —close to the source of self-satisfaction yet contented and not grasping for it. He trusts his mother for all needs and makes no demands, no ‘me, me, me’ cries about his situation and dropping all concern for self.

Focused on Jesus as 2 Corinthians 3:18 says: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another . . . .” Captivated by the wonder of Christ, filled with the desire to be like Him, continually looking His way in all situations.

No complaining. This one is a challenge for me. My mom used to say, ‘We must need it or we would not be getting it.’ This rings true about God’s sovereign control and ability to give what I need even though I deserve nothing. Every time I grumble, I am not poor in spirit.

Sees good in others. While some use terms like my weaknesses compared to the strength of others, I would say this more like ‘sees God’s goodness in others’ — recognizing that all good things come from Him. (James 1:16-18)

Prays much. Needy people are quick to run to God. We don’t leave prayer as a ‘last resort’ but constantly seek His will and blessing. Helplessness drives us to Him and we do not first seek advice from any other source.

Takes Christ on His terms. If He says go, I go. If He says speak up, I speak up. If He says be still, I am still. All this is done without question or worry about the danger or the cost. He leads and I follow, even if it seems odd or difficult or contrary to my reasoning. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” (Proverbs 3:5–8)

Full of praise and thankfulness. The psalms are filled with examples of how poverty of spirit shows up in verbal witness to the fact that we know where our help comes from. We run to Him when we are victorious, never patting ourselves on the back. For that, I will add this one . . .

Keeps short accounts with God. One definition of Lent says: “Prayer during Lent focuses on our need for God's forgiveness. It's also about repenting (turning away from our sins) and receiving God's mercy and love.” A person who is poor in spirit does that all the time. (1 John 1:9)

 Dear Lord Jesus, yes, I realize there is a progression or a learning curve here, but also that feeling poverty and helplessness is unpopular, even in the church. It is my desire to live Your way, not the way of bold human confidence. Your way seems much more difficult yet at the same time, Your example is incredible and appealing. Enable me to embrace my poverty.

MORE: there is nothing more. Just humbly rely on Jesus — all the time and for everything.